1800. ] 
the population of any place, renders it 
fearcely neceflary to obferve, that the 
caufes of a rapid increafe of population 
almoft invariably diminifh as the number 
of the people becomes greater; and that 
the fuppofition, that becaufe the inhabi- 
tants of any country have in twenty or 
forty years paft doubled their number, 
they will continue to increafe at this rate, 
involves an impoffibility, as they muft 
thus in time amount to a greater number 
than the produce of the whole globe would 
fupport. Tle Ge 
May 23. 
Thiel 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
MPRESSED by the humanity and in- 
I dependent thinking difplayed in the 
Effay on Infanity in your magazine for May 
and June, and encouraged by the genera] 
liberality of fentiment by which it is cha- 
racterifed, I am induced to offer a few re- 
fleStions fuggefted to me by the tendency 
of Dr. Reid’s remarks. The objection 
to the rigorous and coercive mea{ures adop- 
ted in the treatment of unfortunate ma- 
miacs does credit to the difcernment and 
feelings of the writer. Darknefs, folitude, 
confinement and feverity, appear affuredly 
but little calculated to vary the fixed idea, 
to divert the gloom of intenfe meditation, 
or footh the throbbings of defpair. Mor- 
bid feeling will probably be exaggerated 
in the abfence, or by the monotony of ex- 
ternal impreffion, and images of horror af- 
fume fhapings more palpable and vivid. 
But waving the medical propriety of 
Dr. Reid’s obfervations, on which I pre- 
fume not to dwell, allow me to advert for 
a few moments to their moral application. 
To infift on the neceffity or utility of the 
paffions, thofe fprings of the mind, the 
fources of its attention, vigour and energy, 
or to declaim on the confequence of their 
intemperance and abufe, would be equally 
trite and unneceflary. Iwo remedies only 
have been hitherto pointed out by mora- 
lifts to abate their fervour and oppofe to 
their excefs. By ancient fages, the effica- 
cy of reafon as an antidote to paffion has 
been ftrongly urged. Modern inquirers 
have, with greater acutenefs and more fa- 
gacity, confidered paffion as a defpot, in 
poffeffion of power, deaf to the claims of 
juttice, and blind to the fplendour of truth: 
or, as pofleffing means of corruption but 
too abundant, and arts of perverfion but 
too infidious, for converting into an auxi- 
« 
Remarks on Dr. Reid on Infanity. 
573 
liary its moft formidable opponent. Tra 
wage an equal war, to repel force with 
force, and pafiion by paffion, to combat 
the enemy with his own weapons, carries 
with if a more fpecious profpect of fuccefs 5 
and it is aganift this hypothefis that the 
remarks of your correfpondent are levelled. 
-| Obiccting, he urges, and not without a 
foundation in truth, the danger left the 
new paffion, in its failure, fhould give ad- 
ditional force to that by which it is ab- 
forbed. his, in melancholy tempera, 
ments, in difpofitions of peculiar tenacity, 
and in fingular circumftances, is but too 
probable. Yet, if ftrong paffions are, toa 
certain extent, increafed by ftruggles; to 
be exhaufied by the continued application 
of ftimuli, feems to be in the nature of the 
human machine. Paffion rarely acquires 
this fatal omnipotence till aided by habie, 
by whofe myfterious power the wretched 
victim is compelled to extraét, even from 
agony, a gloomy and horrid fpecies of 
gratification. By oppofing paffion to paf- 
fion, in its earlier progrefs, the force of 
either is weakened ; by their alternations, 
as by the motion of the antagonift mufcles, 
the mind lofes the fenfe-of fatigue and ex- 
pericnces relief. In proportion to the ab- 
fence of others, is the ftrength and perma- 
nence of a fingle impreflion. In ttriking 
one billiard-ball acainft another, the force 
communicated to the fecond is deduéted 
from the firt. If men of the world, on 
whofe fenfes a thoufand varied objeéts im- 
prefs themfelves, become the votaries of 
ambition or avarice, it is only as thefe 
paflions feem to include in them the gra- 
tification of every other. Attention di- 
vided is neceflarily weakened. From the 
torrent fluiced into many channels, there 
is little dread of devaftation. 
In the oppoftion of paffions to each 
other, it is not always neceffary, nor pof- 
fible, to contraft them. Natural faéts are 
not eftablithed by poetical flights, nor does 
hatred feem to be the apropriate cure for 
fuccefslefs love. Theilliberal quotation of 
the ‘¢ fury of a woman fcorned,”’ can apply 
only to a groffer fentiment, or to wounded 
vanity, feelings which belong not exclu- 
fively to woman. Neither by unkindnefs, 
injury nor infult, can genuine affection be 
robbed of its characteriftic meeknefs. It 
would encroach on the limits allowed me, 
to detail the various methods by which the 
mind, overwhelmed by the preffure of a 
fingle fentiment, might be roufed by inge- 
nuity and addrefs, foftened by patient be- 
nevolence, diverted to the exercife of a li- 
I : beral 
