breaks of anger. It is said of Lord Byron, that wine made him "savage instead of mirthful." The unhappy state of temper under which most persons awake on the morning subsequent to a debauch is, I believe, mainly owing to the morbid and irritable condition left in, and the depraved secretions acting upon, the delicate lining of the stomach; a part, than which few, if any, in the whole animal economy have closer sympathies with our moral nature. Hence may be derived an additional argument, if such were needed, in favor of temperance both in meat and drink, and one especially applicable to those of excitable feelings.

There are certain conditions of the nervous system attended with uncommon irascibility. In some morbid states of the brain, exceeding irritability, with frequent and uncontrollable outbreaks of anger, are apt to be displayed; as at the commencement of acute hydrocephalus in children, and of other inflammatory affections of this organ. A large proportion of epileptic subjects are morbidly irritable, and liable to strong agitations of passion; or, as said by Esquirol, exceedingly susceptible, irascible, ungovernable.

Insanity, at its commencement, is very often marked by impatience, irritability, and bursts of anger, and in its progress perhaps by maniacal rage or fury, either continued, or happening only at certain times of the day, or monthly, or at particular seasons. Some cases of mania consist of one almost uninterrupted fit of violent anger against every body and every thing. Or the insane person may exhibit a general moroseness of character, or a malignant hatred toward, and a disposition to inflict cruelty and even death

upon particular persons, especially such as are most near and dear to him in his rational mind. This strong propensity to fits of rage, and the destruction of life, sometimes constitutes the only evidence of insanity, the mind remaining in all other respects apparently rational, and the case is then classed under that variety of mental aberration termed monomania. A case of this nature is related by M. Pinel, and cited by Dr. Prichard, which was clearly referrible to physical disease, probably of the nervous system.

"A man who had previously followed a mechanical occupation, but was afterwards confined at Bicêtre, experienced, at regular intervals, fits of rage ushered in by the following symptoms: At first he experienced a sensation of burning heat in the bowels, with an intense thirst and obstinate constipation; this sense of heat spread by degrees over the breast, neck, and face, with a bright color; sometimes it became still more intense, and produced violent and frequent pulsations in the arteries of those parts, as if they were going to burst; at last the nervous affection reached the brain, and then the patient was seized with the most irresistible sanguinary propensity; and if he could lay hold of any sharp instrument, he was ready to sacrifice the first person that came in his way. In other respects he enjoyed the free exercise of his reason; even during these fits he replied directly to questions put to him, and showed no kind of incoherence in his ideas, no sign of delirium; he even deeply felt all the horror of his situation, and was often penetrated with remorse, as if he was responsible for this mad propensity. Before his confinement at Bicétre a fit of madness

seized him in his own house; he immediately warned his wife of it, to whom he was much attached, and he had only time to cry out to her to run away lest he should put her to a violent death. At Bicêtre there appeared the same fits of periodical fury, the same mechanical propensity to commit atrocious actions, directed very often against the inspector, whose mildness and compassion he was continually praising. This internal combat between a sane reason in opposition to sanguinary cruelty, reduced him to the brink of despair, and he has often endeavored to terminate by death this insupportable struggle."

There are certain states of the functions of the skin, which are accompanied with an extreme fretfulness of temper. In what are familiarly termed colds, and under the influence of our chilling easterly winds on the sea-coast, many persons become excessively irritable. At the commencement of some diseases of the lungs, a similar condition of moral feeling is displayed. And in disorders of the urinary system, a peculiarly anxious and irascible disposition of mind is very frequently discovered.

Anger, arising out of conditions of our physical organization, must, of course, be directed, not to its real cause, but toward things and persons without, and which have no agency in its production. Thus may we suspect and maltreat those nearest and dearest to us, for no other reason than that our stomachs or livers are not executing as they should do their respective offices. And most persons must, I think, have remarked how apt one is to dream of quarrelling with his friends when going to bed on an indigestible supper. It is

plain, then, that the cook will often have far more concern in the domestic tranquillity of families, than human philosophy has yet suspected. And would this important functionary but cultivate his art in reference to the facility of digestion, as well as to the gratification of the palate, he might contribute more to the happiness of society than nine-tenths of the boasted moral reformers of the time.

CHAPTER XVI.

FEAR. ITS DEFINITION.-BEING ESSENTIAL TO SELF-PRESERVATION, IT BELONGS INSTINCTIVELY TO ALL ANIMALS.—DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MORAL AND PHYSICAL COURAGE. CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF OUR BODILY ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS BEGET A MORBID TIMIDITY OF CHARACTER.-CERTAIN INSTINCTS CONQUER FEAR.-DELICATE AND NERVOUS CONSTITUTIONS ARE SOMETIMES ENDOWED WITH A REMARKABLE DEGREE OF COURAGE AND FIRMNESS.

FEAR, like anger, is grounded on the principle of self-preservation, though the preservative acts to which these two passions incite are of a very different nature. Thus while anger is defensive and offensive, stimulating us to repel or assault and destroy the causes which threaten our safety or happiness, fear urges to avoidance or flight, and it is only when escape has become hopeless that our guardian instincts force us to resistance, or even attack.

Fear being, as already said, based on the instinct of selfpreservation, belongs of necessity to all animals; and it will commonly be found bearing a direct relation to the feebleness and defencelessness of the individual, circumstances