CHAP. II.

tion.

pleasant and brilliant trains will succeed each PART II. other in the most rapid and delightful transitions; though, perhaps, excited at first by cir- Of Imagina cumstances and situations by no means pleasing in themselves; and continued without any intentional effort, or other cause that we can assign.

2. In proportion as persons are respectively liable, by the natural constitutions of their minds and bodies, to associate their ideas in these several trains, their dispositions are melancholy or gay; and if either be carried to such excess as to break the natural connection, or derange the natural order of them, the effect is lunacy ; whence that malady is often partial, affecting some particular trains of ideas, which have been connected with violent or long-continued emo, tions of affection or passion; whilst all the others proceed with the utmost regularity without manifesting any signs or symptoms of perturbation even in the most complicated evolutions of thought.

3. Intoxication is a temporary lunacy arising from a similar derangement in the trains of ideas, caused by the irritation, produced in the stomach by wine or other intoxicating liquors or drugs, extending itself to the brain; as it does almost instantaneously, when large quantities are taken

PART II.

CHAP. II.

Of Imagina

tion.

at a time. If taken gradually, it at first only stimulates and quickens the action of the mind, so as to produce sudden gleams or coruscations, either of wit or folly, either of imagery or conceit, accordingly as the natural vigour or acquired furniture of the understanding may be calculated to supply either the one or the other. But, as the irritation is increased, the action is increased too; so that, at length, it becomes so rapid and violent, that it can no longer be limited or regulated by any principles of logical connection or coherence; and the most wild and extravagant combinations, both of thought and imagery, ensue.

4. Similar effects of excessive and irregular action also take place in dreams, which equally proceed from the irritations of the stomach being extended to the brain: whence that degree of intemperance, which does not cause absolute intoxication, is almost always followed by turbid and incoherent dreams. The infusions also of exhilarating plants and drugs, such as tea, coffee, opium, &c., which are all intoxicating in different modes and degrees, will produce similar effects, if taken to excess: for all exhilaration of the spirits produced by stimulants is a degree of intoxication.

5. As the irritations of the stomach, in cases

CHAP. II.

tion.

of intoxication, disorder the mind through the PART II. medium of the brain; so do all violent irritations of the mind, such as those of excessive grief, Of Imaginaanxiety, or vexation, disorder the stomach through the same medium; loss of digestion and atrophy being generally the proximate, or, more properly speaking, the instrumental causes of death in those persons, who die of what is called a broken heart: a malady, which, I suspect, kills a great many more than it has credit for.

6. Some persons have constitutionally such a vivacity of spirits-such a restlessness rather than fertility of imagination, ever showing itself in new combinations of imagery, sometimes just and pleasing, and sometimes the reverse, that they may be properly said to live naturally in a state bordering on intoxication; their spirits being as much the effect of stimulants as those which are given by wine; but of natural and constitutional stimulants, which rise and operate occasionally, and then leave them low and vapid till the nerves have recovered their irritability or power of action: for such persons have always their ebbs and flows of spirits; the fit of vivacity being invariably followed by one of dejection. Hence wit and madness are said to be nearly allied since, if these constitutional and inherent stimulants act upon machinery too

CHAP. II.

tion.

PART II. weak to bear them, they will of course break it, In minds of adequate vigour, endued with just Of Imagina- feelings, and enriched with various imagery, the combinations, which they excite, though unusual and diversified, will always be just and coherent; and, in the readiness and facility of such combinations, wit properly consists. But, if the proportionate strength of the stimulants be too great, and the action, in consequence, too violent, though the readiness and facility of combination may remain, or even be increased, the justness and coherence of it is gone, and madness, of course, becomes the result.

7. As madness arises from the association of ideas being deranged, so does idiocy from its being defective; the powers of intellect being, in the one, either totally, or in part, disordered; and, in the other, in a greater or less degree, deficient. Hence, while madmen reason wrongly on particular points, idiots reason feebly and imperfectly on all for reason, when not employed upon number or quantity is purely association; as will be explained in the next Chapter, The primary perceptions of both lunatics and idiots appear to be as correct and perfect as those of the most discreet and wise of the species: for, unless where the external organs of sense are defective, they all can perceive and discriminate

flavours, odours, colours, and sounds, clearly PART II and distinctly; though, in idiots, the power of

CHAP. II.

retaining, as well as that of combining the ideas of Imagina excited by them, is generally defective; whilst, tion, in lunatics, it is often rendered useless, either, by the violent emotions to which they are subject, or the entire possession, which the disordered trains of ideas have obtained, of their minds. Hence only the natural, and not the acquired, or improved perceptions of either, are

correct.

8. In proportion to the vigour and extent of this retaining faculty; and to the number and variety of images, with which observation, study, and experience, have enriched it, will the powers of association be multiplied, and their operations varied and extended. Memory may, indeed, exist without imagination; but imagination can never act without the aid of memory; no image or idea having ever been formed or conceived by the most fertile or extravagant fancy, the component elements of which had not been previously received into this storehouse of the mind through the external organs of sense. We may compose, paint, and describe monsters and chimeras of a very extravagant variety of form: but still, if we analyse them, we shall always find that the component.