CLASS III. i. 2. 13. OF VOLITION. 323 



the cultivation of the graces of the mind, which are frequently 

 a more valuable poffeflion than celebrated beauty. 



13. Paupertatis timor. The fear of poverty is one kind of 

 avarice ; it is liable to affect people who have left off a profita- 

 ble and active bufmefs as they are thus deprived of their ufual 

 exertions, and are liable to obferve the daily expenditure of mon- 

 ey, without calculating the fource from whence it flows. It is 

 alfo liable to occur with a fudden and unexpected increafe of 



fortune. Mr. , a furgeon, about fifty years of age, who 



was always rather of a parfimonious difpofition, had a large 

 houfe, with a fortune of forty thoufand ppunds, left him by a 

 diftant relation 5 and in a few weeks became infane from the 

 fear of poverty, lamenting that he fhould die in a jail or a work- 

 houfe. He had left off a laborious country bufmefs, and the 

 daily perception of profit in his books j he alfo now faw greater 

 expenfes going forwards in his new houfe, than he had been 

 accuftomed to obferve, and did not fo diftinctly fee the fource 

 of fupply ; which feems to have occafioned the maniacal hallu- 

 cination. This idea of approaching poverty is a very frequent 

 and very painful difeafe, fo as to have induced many to become 

 fuicicjes, who were in good circumflances ; more perhaps than 

 any other maniacal hallucination, except the fear of Hell. 



The covetoufnefs of age is more liable to affect fingle men, 

 than thofe who have families ; though an accumulation of wealth 

 would feem to be more defirable to the latter. But an old man 

 in the former fituation, has no perfonal connections to induce 

 him to open his purfe ; and having loll the friends of his youth, 

 and not eafily acquiring new ones, feels himfelf alone in the 

 world : feels himfelf unprotected, as his ilrengtji declines, and 

 is thus led tq depend for affiftance on money, and on that ac- 

 count wimes to accumulate it. Whereas the father of a family 

 has not only thofe connections^ which demand the frequent ex- 

 penditure of money, but feels a confojation in the friendfhip of 

 his children, when age may render their good offices neccffary 

 to him. 



M. M. I have been well informed of a medical perfon in 

 good circumftances in London, who always carries an account 

 of his affairs, as debtor and creditor, in his pocket-book j and 

 looks over it frequently in a day, when this diieafe returns upon 

 him ; and thus, by counteracting the maniacal hallucination, 

 wifely prevents the increafe of his infanity. Another medical 

 perfon, in London, is faid to have cured himfelf of this difeafe 

 by ftudying mathematics with great attention \ which exertion 

 of the mind relieved the pain of the maniacal hallucination. 



Many moral writers have ftigmatifed this infanity \ the covet- 

 ous, 



