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    INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT. 309

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    Qp Insanity, Like Other Diseases, Change...

    degree lead to the development of the severest trial- to which _, humanitis exposedor that the _sjDread of educationand the

    consequent y increase of , knowledge , should tend to foster rather , than latent symptoms of this fearful malady .

    Whenhowrepress any , ever , we ask the question—Why insanity has increased with civilization ?—we find that the causes are the resultnot of civilization

    , itselfbut of the thousand contingent circumstances which the pro-, gress towards true civilization _develoj ) s . "Wants hitherto unknown

    become necessities , the passions are roused , the feelings are agitated , while added to these provoking causes , partial education ,

    neglect of the laws of physical well-being , sudden changes of fevered fortune , inquietude anxieties , _washes and , that distresses inequalit , —all y of concur social in producing position ¦ which that _,

    tends to the development , of mental disease . For we must bear in mindthat while among barbarous nations insanity is

    comparativel , y unknown , yet that among _jDolite nations the disorder is not exclusively confined to the educated classes . Far from it , the

    extremes of poverty and riches , learning and ignorance , are equally productive of insanity , though its rise may be traced to different

    sources . It is an old adage , that opposites generally meet . The rich and the poor sleep side by side in life as in death , —affluence

    and poverty abide "together . A savage nation has few inequalities as regards either capacity or _jtosition . Civilization separates

    classesand the disparity of accidental elevation or depression , becomes apparent . Ignorance which results from an equality

    may confer the blessing of immunity , but ignorance which is the of deterioration propagates its evil qualities . A

    consequence profound thinker has said—that man left to the freedom of his own will is the deteriorator of man-- —the free-will of the parent

    becomes the destiny of the child . , The soil forced by the avarice of the proprietor to bear more than its due average of cropsis

    , soon exhausted , and yields to his sordid hand a scant and pitiful ' harvestThe animal whichunder the influence of its native

    climate . and appropriate food , , approaches the perfection of its kindwhen removed to another country and compelled to feed on

    that , which is unsuitable to its organization , speedily dwindles in size and strengthtill within a few yearsand after a few

    genera-, , debased tions , the as type to bear alone sm remains all resemblance , the species to its itself oriinal having . So become is it with so g

    nationsso is it with individuals . There is close analogy between the laws , which the earthand the laws which govern that

    govern , man being is who capable was of created moral to and dwell ph on ysical the face improvement of that , earth so . is As he

    also of moral and physical debasement . A nation may have ¦ becomes raised itself enervated to ' a by vigorous luxury and , by independent security , by self position -satisfaction ; it then ; it

    is weakened by over , or rather unhealthy , culture ; it declines , and the once powerful State becomes almost unreckoned among

    Insanity , Past And Present. 309

    _INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT . 309

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 309, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/21/