UNCONFINED LUNATICS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2562, 23 March 1877, Page 3

UNCONFINED LUNATICS.

An unconfined lunatic of a kind may be found in tile person who argues from no standpoint "of fact, and asserts with no kind of proof to support what he says. To hear such a one, you might believe that the circle of the sciences had been completed by him without a break,, and that history had no knotty points which he could not solve. Hi 3 positivenesa is to be paralleled "only by his ignorance, and the two are of appalling magnitude. He comes down on the poor modest holders of proved opinions as a dragonfly into the midst of a convoy of midges, and trc a'ts them much as a schoolmaster, birch in hand, treats the truants playing marbles in the sunny yaid instead of practising* pothooks and hangers in the stifling room. His lunacy is his belief in his .superior attainments, coupled with the impossibility of anyone to overthrow him in his own esteem, or to confound his reasoning by any amount of logical proof of its futility. He is the universalist, and always absolutely right so far as fact, inference, breadth of view, and justice of opinion can make a man right; and nothing short of that famous surgical operation can convince him of the oontrary. Another unconfined lunatic is the believej^'in quacks—quacks of all kinds; the gaping receiver of all doctrines which include the marvellous and unknown in preference to those which are easy to understand and demonstrable by scientific proof. Anything that savours of mystery is to him the truth, while the plain way is only old-fashioned error to be abandoned by every candid person prepared to accept new truths for old falsehoods. One point in which this lunacy chiefly shows itself is on doctors. You , may _be sure that fin unconfined - lunatic of this kind has a medical worker of miracles .hidden .somewhere in a byplace, a healer of unhealable dsieases-by some secret specific unknown to the scientiticand medical world, and kept a ■ profound mystery for the-benefit of the few • who -may hear the professor ' thereof. , What the" greatest men of the orthodox practice confess themselves honestly unable to perform, the holder of this secret specific offers to clo without the of failure. He will take a ■person in the' more advanced stages of consumption and promise a perfect cure. The process ot,,cure lasts as long as the patient's purse, in some instances;, in others^ it is completed, according to him —never mind, what the bystanders may say—just.at the moment when thebubble is about to burst. Then, the poor victim ..- is sent away to confirm the miracle of healing—by dying at the appointed time, all tke same as he- would have done had ( he never passed into the hands of the quack, to "be fleeced of half his property and deluded with false hopes as his sole retur». ' So of other malades as incurable as consumption when firmly established —say cancer, as an example. There are two or three self-styled cancer-curers scattered about the world—men who profess . to do what no one has ever been able to do, and to heal this, awful malady without the aid of known means. ■ They get their full share of practice, and the money of the credulous keeps them afloat in fairly .deep waters, in spite of that the honest practitioner and the truthful scientist may »ay. Unconfined lunatics go to them this year as last; and the result is accepted with' resignation, and no, abatement of 1 belief even if if; be torture for' some months and death after all. Self-importance'ia another form of this lunacy which is hot madness. To some persons the society in which they move '. circles'round one centre, and that centre is theitnselves..- They . know nothing superior in importance, and they believe that ail. the world agrees with them in . this."- What they do think and are, ■ where they live and what they feel, how -they dine and how they sleep, their pains and" their pleasures, their hopes and their fears, their plans and' their disappointments —these are the chapters of their sacred book, of which they turn the leaves incessantly and read out portions for the benefit of the rest. This is a tiregorne manifestation of lunacy; for, how pleasant soever it is to them to talk of . themselves, nothing is much-more wearisome to others to hear. A man whose self-importance is of, this rampant kind— who is the pivot on which all things turn, and who imagines that others unite with himin;this, workship—is an unconfined •- lunatic,to be avoided by those who desire peaceful days, and who dread uncomfortable moments. His importance is of a kind which overshadows every other person and every other .circumstance, and youhave to take part in the ritual of selfglorification that is perpetually going on, else you must expect a deluge of lunatic reproaches, founded on nothing, and tending nowhere; Again, the believers in their own abnormal insignificance, the sensitive receivers of slights that were pever intended and of shafts that were never aimed, are the nnconfined lunatics of the other side, and just as painful to deal with as their prouder -brethren. They are indeed the obverse and reverse of the same medal—insanity—the one being in relief, and the other indented. They see an injury or an insult in the simplest fact that takes place, and are always being hurt or angry at purely Mythical affronts. You have to assure them more than, once that you meant nothing offensive by your joking speech ; that theanecdo'te which you- told for the benefit of the company to make the dull folks laugh was not a secret satire on v them, and meant for them so to understand; that it was by pure accident, or to" consult your" own convenience and engagement, you paid your visit to A. before going to 8., A. being their rival's friend, and B. "their own ; that when you inveigh against certain corrupt practices of our day, you do not intend them as the chief sinners; andthat really if you do not mean to insult them it is not because they are too insignificant fi>r your notice. The unconfined'lunatics whose crage goes for their own extraordinary humbleness, and the,cruelty with which they are pursued and.prosecuted, find a cause for the ' melancholy faith that is in them at erery turn, and, whether you pay them at tention or do not take much notice of them, equally gather nutriment for their selftorture, and so far confirm their voluntary lunacy.

• ' ' XJriconfined lqnatics are those poor restless wandering souls who try to run" away from themselves, and think that change of residence can shake off the . ennui which they carry with them, not find waiting for them. Unconfined lunatics are those, too, who see no good in any foreign nations, and cannot bo brought to beljeve that arts, trades, or nianufaeturea,py habits can be everywhere in such per- ' "* feciion as in England, not as a vrliole, but

even in parts and in detail. Unconfined lunatics are the discontented who will not suffer that a rose leaf on their beds should be rumpled, and who think themselves specially Mused; by fate if they have not everything they want just when they wani it, arid just as they would have it. This is a numerous class,- if we consider them' well, and as tire orae bs numerous. Pcj too are the very irritable people wlid spend their vitality in small affairs, and make as |much account of 'trifles as; of tbe more important matters. What are they b.ut unconfined lunatics, those' people who make, their world unhappy, because the dinner is fire minutes lale, or the cook has made the jelly with oranges and not with sherry ? These are but small matters at the best; who but a lunatic would put them in the place of honor, as those absurdly irritable people do, and make them cause? of real distress to suffering hearts ? The very essence of sanity is the right apportionment of values ; and one of the most universal evidences of insanity is the grotesque importance given to worthless things, and the mistaking shadows for substances.— Queen.