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248 On Infanity: 
fiituted ‘by nature, we fhould have lefs 
reaion than at prefent to lament its dele- 
ferious tendency. But weil authenticated 
veafes are deplorably numerous, in which 
not a decay of'genius merely has ori- 
ginated in this fource, but even a derange- 
ment of the rational facuity. Although 
the intelicétual powers will always be in 
danger of debility and diforder from the 
too violent, or the too Jong continued, ex- 
ercife of them; this will be ftill more likely 
to take place, when the exercife has been 
confined to one or but a few fubjeéts. By 
fufficiently diverfifying the mode, we may 
protract almoft indefinitely the period of 
exertion. Change of employment is often 
found to anfwer the end of an. entire cef- 
fation from it. 
The fenfe of fatigue, for inftance, which 
we experience from the exercife of our 
Himbs, may be relieved not by reft merely, 
but alfo by again exereifing them in a dif- 
ferent manner. . 
If we have been employed in reading 
or in thinking upon any fubjeét, until the 
attention be exhaufted, how uniformly do 
we find it to be again roufed and invigo- 
_ fated, by directing it to a fubject of a dif- 
ferent nature. 
A perfon in whofe conftitution there 
appears a tendency to infanity, not only 
eught to be guarded againft too long pro- 
tracted or intenfe thinking, but it fhould 
hikewile be recornmended to him to avoid 
a3 much as pofhible thinking upon fubje&ts 
of a very intricate and perplexing nature. 
Yhere are few walks of literature, in which 
be may not be allowed to amufe himfelf, 
provided that he fhun with care the end- 
Jefs labyrinth-of metaphyfical {peculation. 
Scarcely can it appear defirable, or even 
fafe, to attend much to fubjects, where the 
tefileffnefs of doubt fo feldom terminates 
jn the repofe of conviction; or, at leaft, 
where the labour of the refearch is never 
likely to be rewarded by the importance 
of the difcovery. 
That ‘cruel perplexity which the mind is 
apt to experience, when meditating upon 
inexplicable queftions, has not unfitly been 
allotted by our great poet as one of the 
penifhments of condemned {pirits*. 
Habits of intenfe ftudy, or any other cir- 
cumftance which, for a confiderable period, 
places the mind out of the reach or renders 
it infenfible to the operation of external 
agents, appears likely to induce the fymp- 
toms of infanity. Were it not for a per- 
petual obtrufion upon the attention of the 
ebjeéts around us, it would almoft be 1m- 
a 
% Vide Paradife Loft. 
By Dr. Reid. [May z, 
poffible to avoid that uniform train of 
thought which fo generally precedes, and 
in a large proportion of af conftitutes 
the mott firiking feature of, this difeafe. 
Hence it is, that folitude proves fo dan- 
gerous to a mind in which there exifts ahy 
tendency to diforder. More than one per- 
fon has fallen uader my own obfervation, 
who, with a frame uncommonly fufcepti- 
bie of feeling, and addicted to reflection, 
has at length funk into a ftate of decided 
and ‘confirmed melancholy; in confe- 
quence, as there was every reafon to be- 
lieve, of a long continued feclufion from 
nearly all intercourfe.with the world, 
It is not good for man to aflociate 
merely with his own refleétions. Nature 
has intended us for communication with - 
our fellow creatures ; and we are not al- 
lowed to violate with impunity fo ufeful 
an inftinét of our conftitution: 
When familiarity with any fet of ob- 
jects has taken from them the power of 
acting with due force upon the mind, it 
appears defireable, where there is any 
danger of infanity, that new fcenes fhould 
be prefented, and that the patient fhould 
be removed into circumftances as different: 
as poffible from thofe to which his con- 
ftitution has been already accuftomed. It 
is chiefly with this view that travelling 
has fo often been. prefcribed. Dr. Willis 
has remarked, that, of the patients he has 
cured, a much larger proportion have been 
foreigners than natives of this country ; 
—a circumftance whicli no doubt arifes, 
from the former having been made to un- 
dergoa more complete change of fituation. 
In a large proportion of cafes, nothing 
appears to me more mifchievous and ab- 
furd than to confine, as is too often done, 
perfons afflicted with infanity, in dark and 
folitary cells, where they are cruelly de- 
prived of every objeét that might tend te 
divert the mind from the fubjeét of its 
difeafed fenfibility. | 
It is. principally, perhaps, to the aboli- 
tion, in a great mealure, of rigorous con- 
finement, that we may afcribe the fuperior 
fuccefs with which modern praétition- 
ers have treated thofe committed to their 
care. 
A madhoufe feems as ill-calculated to 
reftore the reafon, as a jail is to reform 
the charaéter. ae 
Confinement of both kinds may fome- 
times be neceflary for the fecurity or the 
convenience of fociety; but feldom has it 
any effect upon the unhappy prifoner, ex- 
cept that of confirming, in the one cafe, 
the previous depravity of his morals, and, 
in the other, the derangement of his un- 
deritanding. 
‘os 
