The indulgence of anger, whether secret or open, often leads to mania. Moralists define anger to be " a short madness," and madness we sometime know to nothing more than a lengthened anger. The case of mania loch at first sight appeared to the author of this article the worst he had ever seen, was that of a woman in the cells of the Manchester .vorkhouse, whom the mere sight of her at tendants always roused to the utmost extravagance of pas sion. She loudly accused every person who came near her of the most shocking crimes, denounced every sort of threatening against them, nod went over their features and dress, in order to turn every part or them into the most poignant ridicule. All this was done with a rapidity which no interposition Of others could interrupt ; yet in no one in stance did this woman discover any erroneous judgment, farther than what is incident to any irascible person during a fit of displeasure.
Sometimes madness arises from a thoughtfulness con rerning a person's own deficiencies in prudence and con duct, which he gradually magnifies, till he imagines that he has been guilty of the worst crimes, and that the most dreadful punishment awaits him. To this succeed many other chimerical terrors, and every kind of extravagance, both of imagination and of will Gloomy notions in religion have proved a frequent cause of madness. The rational friends of religion take care to represent it as benignant in its tendency ; hut in times nut far removed from the present, it was customary to array it in most gloomy colours, and to represent the su preme object of adoration as surrounded with nothing but infinite terrors, and his scanty dispensations of mercy as on ly accessible through a system of unintelligible metaphy sics, so difficult in its practical application, as to leave anxiety, terror, and despondency, predominant in the mind of the worshipper. The mental devastation which this mode of thinking produced was great. The dread of un avoidable evils drove many to madness of the worst kind, which very often terminated in suicide. Although this system is now exploded, or its consequences carefully averted, still that enthusiastic imagery, which is often ex hibited to the minds of ignorant persons, has occasionally the effect of deranging their intellects. Those agitations, artfully excited, which arc ascribed to the conflicting agen cy of a good and an evil spirit, divert the mind from the acknowledgment of natural causes ; after which no princi ple can be established for stopping the career of false imagination ; and, unless the balance of reason is in some degree maintained by the general influence of external objects, a person thus deluded runs every risk of mad ness.
Infidelity, or the renunciation of religious sentiments, has also produced in this respect its victims. Pains have some times been taken inhumanly to desolate the hopes which religion has inspired ; and, at the same time, to inflate the mind with the expectation of much happiness from the in dulgence of an ungoverned expansion of thought, and of all the joys of sensual pleasure. On such principles, hopes of a new and happy state of society have been erected. The miserable, gloomy, and, unconsoled disappointment, which were the unavoidable result of such a system, have been keenly felt in proportion to the hopes excited. To this cause must undoubtedly be ascribed much of the madness which occurred with uncommon frequency in France dur ing the revolution.
A tendency to mania may be promoted in a certain state of society, by the prevalence of political and moral liberty, accompanied with a general style of thought marked with a spirit of exaggeration and conflict, and a proneness to take an inordinate interest in particular objects. In this
way the increasing frequency of the complaint in Britain is accounted for. This prevailing spirit extends not merely to religion and politics, but to literature and to morals. The production of strong impressions is regarded as the most important aim of literature, while adjustment and propriety are considered as safely left to the unaided ope ration of private thought ; and the distraction which is thus generated is not foreseen. Even morality has been treat ed in a fantastic manner. In the most sober circles, vir tue is too often cultivated rather as a passion than an intel ligent perception of what is right; and an aversion to vice appears in the form of a strong sensation, rather than a masterly and well-guarded prudence. Among the more ostentatious circles, prudence is confounded with selfish. ness ; and a thoughtless devotedness is plausibly represent ed as generosity. Among some of the moralists of mo dern times, moderation is treated as a word destitute of any conceivable meaning, except when synonymous with indif ference. Every thing that passes under that name has been stigmatised as the death of the mind ; while ambition has hoe,, extolled as the on:y legitimate symptom of activity. The whole of the mural composure which formed the ob ject of the stoical school is represented as an unnatural apa thy. By these extravagances, the human mind, instead of being encouraged in cultivating the happiness which be longs to a regular employment of its powers, is hurried abruptly from sensitive pleasure and pampered imagin? tions to the wafflings of listless sorrow, or that agitating discontent, which generates gloom in private life, and cla mour in public. In private economy, the transition front distressing want to ostentation leaves but little scope for a region of leisurely enjoyment. A taste for new pleasures too quickly verges into the creation of additional necessi ties, and becomes a source of unhappiness ; and the love of order itself, by becoming fastidious, fatigues itself with the maintenance of plans pregnant with anxiety and fragility. Alienation between persons in different situations in life is connected with the spirit thus fostered, and is promoted by the want of a steady well-understood plan for facilitating social intercourse on terms productive of mutual benefit, and consistent with universal convenience. In so far as important general opinions are concerned, perhaps it is in the nature of things, that, where differences of profession arc treated with mutual toleration, a period of mental war fare should precede that of sound liberality ; and that the road to the happiest state of' the general mind, should only' he found by travelling among precipices and thickets, in which many are exposed to trials too severe for human weakness. The influence of these circumstances on the production of madness is disguised by the great plausibi lity of the hyperbolical spirit ; but it ought to be recollect ed that this plausibility throws a lustre on the manners and expressions of many individuals, till the very instant in which their startling aberrations disclose the matured exist ence of the malady which has been all along in a train of preparation.