Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1859-11-26
RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA.

The spread Of the religious epidem-
ic for some time prevailing in Ulster,
and the undated violence of it's symp.
toms, seems to have attracted the pro-
fessional attention of many able and
learned men on both sides of theI
Channel, who naturally desire to save
their respective denominations from
the contagion, or if thai be not Who'll
ly practicable, to know how to miti-
gate its effects. The Bishop Of Win.
chester and other dignitarics of the
English Church, are said to have made
recent pilgrimages to the scene of so
much moral and physical suffering :;
aud the General Assembly of the Free
Kirk Of Scotland, after due inquiry,
are reported to have come to a unani-
nous resolution, somewhat equivocal,
perhaps, in its wary wording, but sut-
ficiently significant of their reluctance
to lend any specific sanction to the de-
|plorable delusion. The members of
the Congregational Union have, we
understand, taken a manlier and
prompter tone, and counselled their
brethren against any paltering with
what the great historian has well de.
scribcd, as the infinitely subtle and
inappreciablc gradations, by which
self.deception passes into voluntary
fraud: But the best and ablest ser
vice that has been rendered on the oc.
casion is that which we acknowledge &c
At the hands of the Archdeacon o
Meath, who in a spirit highly commen
dab blc seems to have applied himself
soon after the breaking ont of the dis
ease, to patient and critical exami
nation, on the spot, of every painfa
phase Of its development. Early ex
'|perience as town missionary amone
the most afflicted and degraded classes
of the community, had led him to thu
careful study of that widespread bu
too much neglected root Of female
lmaladies, hysteria. He had deemed
it his duty to master not only all tht
medical symptoms of the disease, il
all its Protean forms, but the variet
!. moral and social incidents commonl,
Ipredisposing thereto; and being a maj
evidently impressed with the highes
sense of moral obligation, he seems t.
have waited for no dilatory conclusions
on the part of others, but spontane
ously to have devoted much time ant
labor to making q careful ANALYSIS o
the actual condition of things, in tn,
counties of Down and Antrim, o,
which he grounds his earnest ani
; touching appeal to the Judgment o
the community at large.
Under the name of general Revi
val of Religion, a system of intens'
'lexcitement has been organized thro'
ought the districts above referred to
pastors and congregations seeming t,
be equally moved by q common i'm
-|pulse, unlike anything we have beer
accustomed to witness in these coun
tries and comparable only to wha
was some years ago not untrequent il
the less civilized States Of America
The ordinary method Of teaching i,
on the one hand laid aside by th<
minister, and . system Of vehemen
excitation to "escape and begone'
from the pending wrath to come i
substituted, until the tragic iteratlor
of the appeal has wrought in th,
minds of the hearers a sort of spirit
ual panic, amounting to something lit
tie short of delirium. On the othe1
hand, the congregation being pre-
pared by the intensity Of individua
!: 'self-consccio!usness, 9! gives way on tn