CLASS III. i. a. OF VOLITION, 303 



and thofe, whofe education has been humble, to greater defpqn* 

 dency* Where the delirious idea, above defcribed, produces 

 pleafurable fenfations, as in perfonal vanity or religious enthufi- 

 afm ; it is almoft a pity to match them from their fool's para- 

 dife, and reduce them again to the common lot of humanity ; 

 left they (hould complain of their cure, like the patient deforib- 

 ed in Horace, 



*. Pol i me occidiftia, amid, 



Non fervaftis, ait, cui fie extorta voluptas, 

 Et dcmptus per vim mentis gratiflimus error ! 



As infanities arife from excefs of actjon of the fenforial pow* 

 nr of volition, this excefs of action may be owing either to the 

 increafe of motive or ftimulus, or to an increafed quantity or 

 accumulation of that fenforial power. And hence, though the 

 greateft number of infanities originate from increafed motive to 

 voluntary action, as to avoid pain or to acquire pleafure j yet 

 there appear to be fome, which have for their caufe an accumu- 

 lation of the fenforial power of volition. 



Thus thofe, who have been accuilomed to perpetual exer- 

 tions of volition in carrying on fome extenfive employment or 

 profeflion during the firft half of their lives, are liable to be- 

 come melancholy, and eren to deftroy themfelves, if they fud- 

 denly leave off their very active and anxious exertions, and re- 

 tire to a fituation without employment, of which many inftances 

 have occurred. This feems to originate from the pain occafion* 

 ed by the accumulation of the fenforial power of volition, which 

 now ceafes to be expended for want of motive. The tsedium 

 vitse defcribed in No. X. of this genus of difeafes affects indo 

 lent people, who poffefs accumulated fenforial power, but want 

 motive to excite it into fuch actions of the mufcles or ideas, as 

 might in part expend ft. 



The accumulation of fenforial power from the defect of ac* 

 Cuftomed actions feems to give rife to fome inordinate mufcular 

 motions, as the inceflant jumping of a fquirrel confined in a cage, 

 And fome of the motions of children confined too long in fchools> 

 which are called tricks. See Clafs III. i. i. I. and IV. i. 3. 2. 

 And I am inclined to think, that thefe infanities, which are term- 

 ed melancholy, where no previous misfortune has occurred, as in* 

 grief or difappointed love, but where the patient fits perpetually 

 brooding over fome pain/ul idea, which was not previoufly ex- 

 cited by any external event, as in the tsedium vitx, are in g< ' 

 al occafioned by accumulations of fenforial power 5 and the 

 Jem infanities to increafe of motive; that is, to thofe pi ins -or 

 u-ant of pleafure, which excite averllon or dcfirc. 



