and independent of, any thing out of place, or peculiar, in the intellectual views of the individual. The manner in which some particular illusion afterwards supervenes on the disordered and perverted state of the feelings, is thus lucidly set forth by Dr. Prichard: "An individual of melancholic temperament, who has long been under the influence of circumstances calculated to impair his health, and call into play the morbid tendencies of his constitution, sustains some unexpected misfortune, or is subjected to causes of anxiety; he becomes dejected in spirits, desponds, broods over his feelings, till all the prospects of life appear to him dark and comfortless. During this period, if questioned as to the causes of his mental dejection, he will probably assign no particular reason for it. At length his gloom and despondency becoming more and more intense, his imagination fixes upon some particular circumstance of a distressing nature, and this becomes afterwards the focus, round which the feelings which harass him concentrate themselves. This circumstance is often some real, occasionally some trifling act of delinquency, for which the individual expresses the strongest and most disproportionate self condemnation. In other instances an unreal phantom suggests itself, in harmony with the prevalent tone of the feelings, which at first haunts the mind as possible, and is at length admitted as reality. Other individuals begin by indulging morose and unfriendly feelings towards all their acquaintance, magnifying in imagination, every trifling neglect into a grievous contumely. They fancy at length that they find in some casual occurrence glaring proofs of a premeditated design to ruin them, and expose them to the contempt and derision of society. The disease in these cases has its real commencement long before the period when the particular illusion, which is only an accessory symptom, is discovered."

Thus it is that the second characteristic feature of melancholy, develops itself, viz: monomania. To the same purport we could easily cite the most distinguished authorities both German and French.* Indeed we have but to observe narrowly any case that may fall under our observation, in its premonitory and incipient stages, to satisfy ourselves of the perfect accuracy of these observations, as to the order

See Dr. Jacobi's Bobachtungen über die Pathologie und Therapie der mit Irreseyn verbundenen Krautsheiten :-and M. Esquirol's articles in Dict. des Sciences Medicales.

and connexion of the morbid phenomena. We hope our readers will follow us patiently through these seemingly speculative details: for they are of essential importance to a right understanding of the true nature and treatment of melancholy, in connexion with religion.

The state of mind on which melancholy is most apt to fix and feed, and which we have therefore put down as one of its characteristics, is that of oppressive fear, or gloomy despondency, varying in degree from what is termed a disposition to look upon the dark side of every picture, to the blackest despair. The form of the superinduced illusion, depends generally upon accidental circumstances,*-most frequently upon the occupation, or the engrossing taste of the individual. The devotee of science, for example, imagines himself subjected to the fatal influence of electricity or magnetism, or the victim of poison by some chemical agent. The merchant persuades himself of a combination to ruin his business, and is overwhelmed by the prospect of imaginary bankruptcy. Not unfrequently the supervening hallucination takes the most ludicrous form, from some trifling internal sensation,-from the mere motion of wind in the bowels. Dr. Jacobi relates the following curious case: "A man confined in the lunatic asylum at Würtzburg, in other respects rational, of quiet, discreet habits, so that he was employed in the domestic business of the house, laboured under the impression that there was a person confined in his belly with whom he held frequent conversations. He often perceived the absurdity of this idea, and grieved in acknowledging and reflecting that he was under the influence of so groundless a persuasion, but could never get rid of it. It was very curious to observe how, when he had but an instant before cried What nonsense! is it not intolerable to be so deluded'? and while the tears which accompanied these exclamations were yet in his eyes, he again began to talk, apparently with entire conviction, about the whisperings of the person in his belly, who told him he was to marry a great princess. An attempt was made to cure this man by putting a large blister on his abdomen, and at the instant when it was dressed and the vesicated skin snipped, throwing from behind him a dressed up figure, as if just extracted

* So true is this, that Esquirol declares he could have written the history of the French revolution from the cases of mental disease which fell under his observation in connexion with that eventful period.

from his body. The experiment so far succeeded that the patient believed in the performance, and his joy was at first boundless, in the full persuasion that he was cured; but some morbid feeling about the bowels, which he had associated with the insane impression, being again experienced, he took up the idea that another person similar to the first, was still left within him, and under that impression he continued to labour."*

When melancholy lays its hold upon the religious feelings, as it is liable to do in individuals of a certain pre-existing temperament, the form of the illusive ideas which supervene, are determined, in like manner, by the circumstances of the patient. In the age of mythology, for instance, they were tormented by furies; in that of superstition, they are haunted by demons, or conceal a devil within their person, as is common in some parts of Roman Catholic countries. In more enlightened and evangelical parts of Christendom, the most common and indeed almost universal form of the delusion, as Dr. Rush has observed (see p. 114) is a conviction either 1. that the individual in particular is excluded from the divine mercy by an irreversible decree of the Supreme Being; or 2. that he has committed the unpardonable sin. From these facts alone it is evident that religion or erroneous religious belief, is not the cause, but the effect, and the food of pre-existing disease.

We now proceed, however, to examine more particularly into the real connexion between religion and melancholy, and (as a collateral inquiry) how far the common impression is well founded, that religious belief and Christian experience naturally tend to produce melancholy. And while our limits, so contracted in comparison with the extent of the subject, preclude the advantages which would arise from a thorough examination of all the causes of this form of derangement, we venture to give some tabular statements on the subject, the mere inspection of which will suggest many curious truths to the thinking reader; while they shed a flood of light upon the particular point before us. We only premise that it is usual to divide the causes of insanity, into physical and moral.

Table showing the causes of melancholy in 482 cases given by M. Esquirol.t

* See farther on this subject Prichard, Chap. II. Sec. 2 and 3. Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales, Tome XXXII. p. 155.

† Dictionarie des Sciences Medicales, Tome XXXII. p. 166.

The above table is taken from the records of the Salpêtrière, which was devoted exclusively to females, and most of the patients were from the lower and middle classes. Both these circumstances should be borne in mind in deducing any conclusion from the statistics.

In the reports of our own hospitals the statistics of the melancholy patients are not given separately. In the Pennsylvania Hospital, (see Report for 1842,) out of 299 patients, 52 were labouring under melancholy. The following table shows. the immediate exciting causes of disease in the whole number.

We have not space to quote any of the tables before us, showing the occupation of the patients. The most curious feature of them all is, that by far the largest proportion of the male patients had been farmers. In the State Lunatic

Asylum at Utica, N. Y., out of 148 male patients, 62, or 42 per cent. had been farmers! 14 merchants, 26 labourers, 9 clerks, 7 scholars, 4 attorneys, &c.

We return to the particular point before us and our first general remark is, that after all, the cases of religious melancholy, so far as the statistics of the disease show, are comparatively few. It is certainly very remarkable that among all the patients included in M. Esquirol's tables from Salpêtrière, there is not a single one charged to religion as the cause. In a report subsequently published by the same author, of the Maison Royale de Charenton, frequented by patients of a much better class in society, out of 448 cases, 18 are set down to the cause, "dévotion exaltée." In our own country, for obvious reasons, the proportion of such patients is much greater. In the Pennsylvania hospital out of 299 cases, 15 are traced to "religious excitement." And in the Asylum at Utica, the startling proportion of 57 out of 276 cases, are attributed to "religious anxiety."

To those who understand the circumstances connected with these several reports, these results are very much such as might be expected: and they establish beyond reasonable doubt the position we have assumed, that the hallucinations of insane and melancholy persons are the result of pre-existing disease, and only take their form from the accidental habits or feelings of the patients. The absence of religious excitement among the lower classes of Paris, has not diminished the number of cases, but the disease has there seized upon some more engrossing subject of thought; while in that portion of our own country where religious excitement has raged most, it has naturally fixed itself upon that which is perfectly congenial to it, and which it found already prepared to hand. In determining the comparative frequency of this form of mental disease, it ought to be stated, that many individuals are undoubtedly affected with it, who yet from the absence of any gross intellectual disorder, are not reckoned among the insane; and farther, that even when they are so reckoned, they are usually so harmless and the state of their feelings is such, that they are seldom sent for treatment to a public institution. Hence the statistics of insanity are far from showing the exact