60 GENIUS AND MENTAL DISEASE. 
Christian fathers in their attempts to explain the inspi- 
ration of the prophets and of the apostles. 
Greek supernaturalism and the Christian doctrine of 
inspiration here found a common point of agreement, 
for both implied a ‘‘ divine intoxication ’’—an ‘* over- 
flowing of the mind’’—because of its entire possession 
by a divine influence, which, according as it was good 
or evil, excited a ‘‘ poetic furor’’ indicative of genius, | 
or caused a wild frenzy which was known as madness. 
Genius, therefore, was simply a reflection, through the 
human brain, of an outside divinity of good; while in- 
sanity was merely an expression of satanic possession— 
an inspiration of an evil spirit—and in nature was 
closely allied to genius. : 
This belief, although somewhat modified by filtering 
through ages of changing thought, has been superseded 
only in very recent times by the conceptions which re- 
flect the broader generalizations of inductive science. 
Modern science, groping its way through the intrica- 
cies of inanimate and animate nature, has applied the 
inductive method to the study of*mind ; made the brain 
the starting point of its analysis, and, from a study of 
its mechanism, sought to learn its relations to psychical 
phenomena. For centuries this has been the inspiring 
hope of many ; but the ultimate facts of nervous tissue 
yet elude us. The fragments of truth already obtained 
have, however, widened the horizon of our mental per- 
spective, and caused to recede—yet a little further, and 
on a different tangent—the unknown which we pursue. 
Every discovery has opened new avenues of thought, 
and suggested new problems for solution, and, at the 
same time, there has come to the thoughtful mind a 
deeper realization of nature’s vastness, and of the pro- 
found mystery that lies behind the phenomena which 
appear to the senses and are perceived by the intellect. 
There can be no complete synthesis of mental phe- 
