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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
cfrganffc , t Weo * ti no mow thiak as wo like than we m breathe lite libe : and the moral character of our actions is perhaps $ 3 nec * 6 * ary as the colour of our blood . However , to J $ uckinghamr shire I was bound . Why there , in particular * I knew not . There
wore other plages * other relatives , to which I could have gone ,, and to which , I had been invited ; but no *—Buckinghamshire was the place which presented itself ; and I could as easily . have blotted the county out of the map of England as have changed my determination to go thither . In two or three hours after the physician had recommended change of air , I waa being driven past the Middlesex Asylum for Lunatics , on the Bucks road . What an immense pile for such a 1
purpose ! What an amazing number of c minds diseaseddoes it ioatttain ! My sympathies were poignantly touched while contemplating this building . In what respect , thought I , am I less mad than many of the inmates of that miserable abode ? Here am I in this post ~ ohaise , —the vehicle , the horses , the driver , my peroon , my volition , all put into motion by a little breath ( which Would not have turned a weathercock ) modulated into three or
four distinct sounds by my physician ' s tongue . How could my situation be referred to rationality any more than theirs ? Surely k is hard to define where caprice ends and insanity begins 1 All imaginations are sometimes morbid . The functions of the brain an in no case so nicely balanced but that a small weight of care may make reason kick the beam . Yet there is a difference between a momentary and a permanent disturbance of the
equilibrium of the beam . There is a difference between a healthy and a diseased brain ; but the physiologist must define it—the moralist cannot . The politician in his projects , the fanatic in his inspirations , and all men in their respective idiosyncrasies , exhibit madness in their conduct , albeit their brains may be as sound as was Benthain ' s itself .
I arrived at my aunt ' s , and was received with a strange coramixture of surprise , welcome , and anger . I think the welcome predominated . Scolding being the only recreation in which the ever indulged , of course I was well scolded . I should havie thought the old lady was not rejoiced to see me if she had not rdtfed mt a little . My cough she attributed to my keeping late hour *; and , consequently , I wad scolded for Dot going earlidr to
bed . She had an asthmatic cough , which sh * did not prevent , and could not cure ; yet she pointed out a thousand m ^ ans by rtfcich I might have prevented my cough , and nostrums in it *~ fifllty wbaopwOuld infallibly have cured it * And here again I gfct scdlcUti . for neglecting the precautions , and for not having tabta < jthfri phyria Aefroehments were provided , and my eyes weffe * Ua * ml togfcute oa many bonne * bouches which were prohthkm ^ tmm ^^ eriB ^ iti f ntinith . My aunt waa a rigid dietitian ; and ' * mmmfHp& ! hfa met young mm as Mrs . Makprof
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1835, page 810, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2652/page/54/
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