4 66 INTEMPERANCE AND INSANITY 



lesser degree, feeble - mindedness. There is, however, no sharp 

 line of demarcation : imbecility and idiocy are merely graver 

 phases of feeble-mindedness. The defect of memory is usually 

 general : but in some cases it is more or less limited to particular 

 departments of mental acquirement. Thus there are * moral 

 imbeciles ' who, while able to make other mental acquirements, 

 are unable to acquire, in the form of imitation instincts, the code 

 of morals prevalent in the community in which they are reared. 

 The low tone of morality, especially sexual morality, so common 

 amongst the feeble-minded, however, is more often due to general 

 incapacity : the individual possesses normal instincts which, like 

 other animals, he tends to obey, but which he does not learn to con- 

 trol like the average human being. To lack of memory, also, is 

 attributable his deficiency in the 'higher faculties,' for example 

 intelligence and reason. Probably, in comparison to the rest of 

 our powers, we are all feeble-minded to some extent in one or more 

 particulars. Thus, while possessing fair capacity in most depart- 

 ments of mental acquirement, we may be relatively incapable 

 of accumulating musical, lingual, or mathematical efficiency. The 

 connection between weak-mindedness and incapacity to learn is 

 clearly seen when we consider that if we lacked, as some people 

 do, such an instinct as the sexual or the parental, the function 

 of which is not to impel us to make acquirements useful to 

 ourselves, we should not necessarily seem feeble-minded. But 

 lack of imitativeness or curiosity would almost necessarily 

 lead to a condition of mental dullness closely resembling 

 imbecility. 



763. (Z?) The individual may be a ' lunatic,' quite normally 

 capable of recollecting experiences and learning dexterities and 

 habits. But the universe his mind constructs for him differs 

 markedly from that created by the minds of normal people. He 

 feels and thinks abnormally. His experiences impress his mind 

 in an unusual way, and he draws unusual inferences from them. 

 He has hallucinations and delusions. What to the normal person 

 is a shadow on the wall, may seem to him the devil. Common 

 sounds may have an awful significance, 



" As the Lord were walking near, 

 Whispering terrible things and dear." 



The sight of two people, perhaps strangers, in conversation may 

 create a conviction that they are plotting great good or harm to him. 

 The ordinary behaviour of his fellows may give rise to the notion 



