JOHNSON. 1 7 



seemed wholly unconnected with bodily complaint, 

 though it appeared to interfere with the functions of the 

 alimentary canal ; and it was relieved by strict attention 

 to diet, and by great temperance in all particulars. There 

 was, as in Johnson's case, no kind of delusion, nor any 

 undue action of the imagination ; but unlike his, it was 

 wholly unattended with apprehensions or fears of any 

 kind. There was also no disposition to indulgence of 

 any kind except of sleep ; and a particular aversion to 

 the excitement of fermented liquors, the use of which 

 indeed never failed to exacerbate the malady, as Johnson, 

 too, from his confession to Mr. Boswell, appears to have 

 found, after trying them in vain to alleviate his suffering. 

 The senses were not at all more dull than usual, and 

 there was as much relish both of physical and mental 

 enjoyment. But the seat of the disease being in the 

 mind, and in the mind wholly, independent of and 

 unaffected by any external circumstances, good fortune 

 produced no exhilaration, afflictions no additional depres- 

 sion. The attack commenced sometimes suddenly, that 

 is, in a few days, and not seldom was foretold by dream- 

 ing that it had begun. The course was this. The active 

 powers were first affected; all the exertions of the will 

 becoming more painful and more difficult. This inertness 

 next extended itself and crept over the intellectual facul- 

 ties, the exercise of which became more distasteful and 

 their operations more sluggish; but the results, though 

 demanding more time, were in no respect of inferior 

 quality. Indeed, the patient used sometimes to say that 

 when time was of no importance, the work was better, 

 though much more painfully done. The exertions reso- 

 lutely made and steadily persevered in, seemed gradually 



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