AND BODILY STATES UPON THE IMAGINATION. 103 



culties ; opium, on the contrary, if taken in a proper manner, intro-' 

 dilces among them the most exquisite order, legislation, and har- 

 mony. Wine robs a man of his self-possession ; opium greatly in- 

 vigorates it. Wine unsettles and clouds the judgment, and gives a 

 preternatural brightness, and a vivid exaltation, to the contempts 

 and the admirations, the loves and the hatreds, of the drinker ; opi- 

 um, on the contrary, communicates serenity and equipoise to all the 

 faculties, active or passive ; and with respect to the temper or moral 

 feelings in general, it gives simply that sort of vital warmth which 

 is approved by the judgment, and which would, probably, alwaysf 

 accompany a bodily Constitution of primeval or antediluvian health; 

 Thus, for instance, opium, like wine, gives an expansion to the 

 heart and benevolent affections, but with this remarkable difference 

 that, on the sudden development of kind-heartedness which accom- 

 pa^ries inebriation, there is always more or less of a maudlin charac- 

 ter, which exposes it to the contempt of the bystander. Men shake 

 hands, swear eternal friendship, and shed tears, no mortal knows 

 why, and the sensual creature is clearly uppermost. But the ex- 

 pansion of the benigner feelings incident to opium, is no febrile ex 

 cess, but a healthy restoration to that state which the mind would 

 naturally recover, upon the removal of any deep-seated irritation or 

 pain, that had disturbed and quarrelled with the impulses of a heart 

 originally just and good. True it is that wine, up to a certain 

 point, and with certain men, rather lends to exalt and steady the 

 mind ; but still, it constantly leads a man to the brink of absurdity 

 and extravagance, and, beyond a certain point, it is sure to volatilize 

 and disperse the intellectual faculties i whereas opium always seems 

 to compose what had been agitated, and to concentrate what had 

 been distracted. Under the influence of oj)ium the moral affections 

 are in a state of cloudless serenity, and over all is the great light of 

 the majestic intellect.'* 



The effects of opium, like those of wine, are widely different 

 upon different persons. I have known opium, taken with a view of 

 removing melancholy and ennui, produce a state of delirium and 

 watchfulness bordering upon insanity, instead of quieting the mind 

 and producing those delightful sensations for which it has been so 

 much extolled, and which, in a great majority of instances, it never 



January, 1836. — vol. hi., no. xiv. O 



