Chap.V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 235 



am perfuaded, the efFefts of difeafe, not in the organs of fight, any- 

 more than the like apparitions to a man in a fever, but of the 

 Mind ; and, if the difeafe had gone much farther, I have no doubt 

 but he would have miftaken them for realities. And thus much of 

 our waking Phantafms, which we know to be fuch. 



"What we are next to confider, is thofe Phantafms which appear 

 to us when awake, and which we miftakc for realities. This 

 I take to be the cafe of Madnefs, and of that leffer degree of Mad- 

 nefs in women or weak men, which we call Fapottrs, if they come 

 to a certain height. The Phantafia of the madman prefents to him 

 Vifions, which he believes to be realities, and a(5ls accordingly ; for 

 it is a fadt not more flrange than it is true, that, though the go- 

 verning principle of the madman cannot correct or redrefs thofe falfe 

 appearances in his imagination, yet it enables him to reafon and aCt 

 Gonfequentially, upon the fuppoiition of the appearances being real 

 exiftences. And he argues and afts commonly much more confidently 

 than thofe who do not miftake appearances for realities, buthave weak 

 underftandings, or Arong paffions, or both : Such men we call fools. 

 And here lies the difference, in my apprchenfion, betwixt the two : 

 The fool knows that the appearances in his Phantafia are not realities, 

 but reafons ill, and makes falfe conclufions from them ; the mad- 

 man miflakes them for realities, but reafons well upon that fuppofi— 

 tion. 



As almoft all things in Nature run into one another, like fhades 

 of different colours, which makes it difficult to fay where the one 

 begins, or the other ends ; fo it is with refpedt to madnefs, and a 

 very lively fancy under the influence of ftrong paflions. A man of 

 that kind, though he have ftlll the faculty of reafon, yet his imagi- 

 nation may be fo heated, and the colouring of the pidtures there be 

 fo ftrong and lively, that he may fometimes, like a man at a play, 



G g 2 when 



