subdued or restrained, developed themselves without control under the temperance and religious excitements in which he took part, and led his mind into the fancies arising out of them. Visions of a somewhat distempered imagination, in which he might formerly have indulged, of that kind usually called day-dreams, or castle building, then perhaps recurring to his mind, he may in the first moments of his delirium have believed in their real existence.* Still, he has not been without "method in his madness;" and it seems clear to the writer, that, with a tinge of insanity, he is also much of a knave, and probably a dupe likewise in part to his own imposture. * Abercrombie. CHAPTER XI. Concluding Observations-Religion not responsible for Monomania and Delusion-Hallucinations arising from other Causes -Catalepsy-The Power of Sympathy-Animal Magnetism -Various other Phenomena of the Mind-Catholic Delusions -Epidemic bodily Affections-Mewing and biting NunsBarclay's Apology for the Quakers-Religious Excesses in Kentucky-Fanaticism of the Present Day-Evil Consequences upon the Church-Connected with the Impostures of Matthias-Fanaticism and Delusion still existing in NewYork-Ill Effects of the Ultraism of the Day-Project for dispensing with Wine at the Eucharist-Conclusion. It was the principal and almost the sole design of the present work to make it a simple record of facts-leaving theories and speculations to the philosophers. And yet, in the view of the writer, it would be a course of questionable propriety to send forth a volume of this description without addressing a few words of caution, especially to the youthful reader, that he is by no means to take it for granted that the gross impieties and strong delusions we have been contemplating are to be charged to the account of the Christian religion. The disorder of the mind usually termed monomania by the physicians-being that form of mental hallucination in which the mind is absorbed by a single idea―arises from various moral causes, and frequently has no connection whatever with religious subjects. De lusions also, deep, dark, and often fatal, are as likely to settle upon the mind, and cloud the understanding, in regard to other matters, as upon those of religion. The causes, the direction, and the results, are as various as the structure of the mind, and the pursuits of men. The delusion in the early history of New-England, on the subject of witchcraft, which prevailed so extensively, and which, in the blindness of its phrensy, doomed so many innocent victims to the scaffold and the fagot, was partly religious and partly not, and withal thoroughly fanatical. It has been attributed, and that not without a show of reason, to the superstitious era in which those excesses oceurred. But if so, what are we to say of that strong mental delusion-and none was ever more unaccountable or more melancholy-which, in the present enlightened age, and in a section of country inhabited by the most intelligent people in this union, compassed the abduction and murder of a few citizens, in revenge for an imaginary offence-not against the peace and dignity of the state, nor to the personal detriment of a single individual, but merely for the anticipated infringement of a regulation of a private social society! Most assuredly, the mental malady which instigated and perpetrated such a crime, and which was shared to a greater or less extent by hundreds of respectable and intelligent men, had no connection with the religious principle. Nor was the fanatical delusion of antimasonry, which succeeded it, and swept like a hurricane of fire over large portions of our country, allied to that principle. The mania which prevailed among the capitalists of England and France, in the memorable instance of the South Sea Bubble, affords another example of delusion equally strong, and yet upon a subject still farther removed from things appertaining to religion. How many thousands of men, heedless and blind, on that occasion rushed into the gulf of bankruptcy, as if bereft of reason, impelled by the desire of at once realizing fortunes by means they knew not what, and from sources they knew not whence ! Nor was this mental obliquity peculiar to that isolated instance of stupendous stock-jobbing. It was more strongly developed on that occasion, because of the magnitude of the scheme, and the number and consequence of its dupes. But the like spirit is yet abroad, and ever will be, whenever new sources and objects of speculation are presented to an enterprising community. Still more remarkable, however, and yet more absurd than any or all these, was the delusion which spread over Europe some half a century ago; and which has at various times been revived, and is by no means extinct at the present time, on the subject of animal magnetism. There is no greater absurdity extant in popular opinion, than the fancied analogy between the action of the mineral magnet and that of the animal energy, maintained by the disciples of Anthony Mesmer, the German impostor, who turned the heads of half the savans of Europe upon this subiect. No more audacious or successful mountebank, probably, ever lived than Mesmer. But although compelled to quit Vienna in consequence of being detected in a fraudulent miracle he had attempted, yet his career in Paris afterward was one of unexampled success. The magnet soon grew into comparative disuse, and the impostor declared that the pretended cures wrought by him were effected by a mysterious power in his own person, and that this power was allied not only to the magnetic power, but to the attraction dispersed throughout the universe. Monstrous as were his pretensions, he obtained credence, and for a while all Europe, including princes, and learned doctors, scholars, and philosophers, were among his believers. There were no more splendid salons in Paris than his, and none more universally and fashionably thronged. It will not be pretended, we apprehend, that a delusion like this, had any connection with the religious principle—and analogous examples might be multiplied to an almost indefinite extent, were more necessary to establish the position we are maintaining. But it is believed the few cases to which brief reference has been made, will be amply sufficient for the present purpose. Perhaps, however, it may yet be objected by the skeptic, that the examples cited are exceptions, standing alone, at the distance of long intervals of years, and that, after all, monomania has been both more strikingly and more frequently exhibited in * Vide Appendix, H. |