AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 'Jl 



or republican, wherein the sources of moral agitation are most abun- 

 dant, there the proportion of insane persons will be highest : the act 

 of liberation is certainly inimical to mental peace ; it operates by pow- 

 erfully affecting the interests of the mass, by calling forth the deepest 

 sympathies, the most ungovernable passions of the human breast. 

 7. That, the most useful and active period of life, that between thirty 

 and forty, is more exposed than any other to the incursions of lunacy ; 

 and its activity is the predisposing cause : all the mental energies are 

 then excited, the affections find objects, the passions are roused ; and, 

 if there be a weak or imperfect part of man's nature, it is then shaken 

 and may be cast down in the struggle for subsistence, or for wealth, 

 or for power, or by the anxieties which too frequently arise in the 

 even tenour of the most humble and unambitious career : but 

 no age is exempt from this deplorable calamity ; for infants and 

 octogenarians do become insane. 8. That marriage, with the peace 

 and happiness which it secures, affords a protection from insanity, 

 either by removing individuals from the influence of existing 

 causes, or by the formation of regular habits and the cultivation 

 of virtuous impulses, thereby rendering that influence innocuous. 

 To woman marriage is, or ought to be, the point to which all her 

 wishes have previously converged, and from which all her future 

 hopes and happiness are to emanate : to man it is the shield against 

 himself and his passions ; he seeks in it, and he finds joy, solace, and 

 support, when these fail of being furnished by his own thoughts or 

 avocations, or by the world. When founded on harmony of disposi- 

 tions, marriage creates the capabilities of enjoying comfort, and of 

 enduring pain ; it neutralizes selfish feelings and pleasures ; it pre- 

 vents the mind from retiring on itself ; it acts as a barrier against 

 hidden sorrows ; it gives employment to his noblest qualities ; and, 

 while checquered by the ordinary vicissitudes of life, because it 

 naturally yields no strong, or sudden, or permanent excitements, it is 

 a powerful antidote to insanity. 9. That females are more subject 

 to mental derangement than men, both before and after marriage ; 

 and that the causes of this are constitutional peculiarities, delicacy of 

 frame, susceptibility of mind, and imperfect or vicious education. 

 In many instances, this tends to arrest the development of the body ; 

 it overtasks some of the mental powers, and leaves others untaught ; 

 it is directed to the encouragement of sordid and selfish feeling ; it 

 substitutes a vapid affectation for a knowledge of the realities and 

 duties of life ; and thus, instead of imparting strength and stability, 

 it becomes the fertile source of debility and decay. 10. That, un- 



