The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-12-07

unquestionably do.
DISORDERS OF THE MIND.-The increase of
insanity in England and in some portions of
America is alresting the attention of medical
and scientific men, and some valuable works
on the subject have been lately given to the
public. 1t is contended by one writer that
every human brain has in it the seeds OF In
sanity, i'll most cases occult and dormant, but
which yet, on any day and by any cause, may
be fruetlfied and quickened into furious life.
Juvenal counselied mothers to ask of the gods
for their children, not form, beauty, or earthly
possessions, but "a sound mind in sound
body" DIR. Samuel johnson, whose intellee.
tual and moral structure was alike grand and
powerful, passed all his mighty days under
the dread OF an intellectual eclipse. Sir
Walter Scott had melancholy p,esentiment
OF the attack of brain disease of which he
died. His son-inlaw and biographer, Mr..
Loeiihart, gives an affecting statement of the
slow, gradual, reluctant conviction which
forced itself upon him, when writing at the
dictat1on Of Scott, near the close of his event
tul hfe, Chat the mighty mind was losing some
thing OF It's energy; that, though the faculties
were there and occasionally displaying them
selves In full vigor, the sagacious judgment
and unriyailed memory were occasionally at
fault.
Among the cords the fingers strayed,
Aud al uncertain warbiing made.'
Ever and anon he paused and looked around
him, like one half waking from a dream
mocked with shadows. The sad bewilderment
OF his gaze showed momentary conscious
ness, tnat, Ike Samson IN the lap of the Pniiis-
tine, 'hls strength was passing from him, and
he was becoming weak ike unto other men,
Then came the strong effort of aroused will.
The clouds dispersed as ii before an irresisti-
Die current OF pure aV; all was bright and
serene as of old, and then it closed again in
yet deeper darkness. Under these circuna-
stances it was no wonder that his medical ad-
visers assured him, repeatedly and emphatical
ly, that, if he persisted in working his brain,
nothing could prevent his disease from recur-
ring with redoubled severity. His answer
was, "As flor bidding men not work Molly
might as well put the kettle on the fire and
say, now d0nf toa' | foresee distinctly that
If I.were to be idle should go mad The
fate Of Swift and Marlborough was also be-
fore his eyes, and in his journal there is an
entry expressive of his fears lest the anticipa-
Ted blow should not destroy life, and that he
might linger on a driveller and show. Il
90 not think my head is weakened, this was a
subsequent entry,) yet strange vacillation
makes me suspect Is it not thus that men be-
gsa TO .toit-becoming, as II arere, iafrm of
purpose? That way madness lies; let me
Ahun that. No more Of thsie's'...,.s1sssss.
The eensible presentiment which Dean
Swift had Of his imbeciity is illustrated in his
memorable conversation with DIR. Young
The two were walking in the Tneighborhoed
OF Dublin when DR.. Young suddenly missed
the Dean, who had Jagged behind He found
him at distance, gazing in a stale of solemn
abstraction at the top Of a lofty elm whose
head had been blasted by hurricane. He
directed DR. foung' attention to the summit
of the tree, and, heaving heavy sigh, ex-
ciail ed: " / shall be like that tree l shall
die the top first" How profoundly sorrow
full his exclamation afterwards, upon reading
one of his early works "What gen us /
had when wrote that
A great mind in ruin is the saddest wreck
that floats upon the stream of Time. What a
rehuke to the pride of intellect! What
| lesson to the arrogance and contempt
| with which many persons of genius not COM
| parable to Dean Swift look down upon the
ordinary head! Who hath made them to
| differ? The qualities which make men in
| tellecsually great ara not their own creation,
| but the gifts of One who can at any time i'm
| pair or withdraw them, and reduce their
| proud possessors not only to level with their
fellow men, bat beneath them-beneath the
| beasts of the field-to helpless idiots or raving
| madmen. Nor is it, after all, great genius
which likens men most to the angels
Between the intelligence of the loftiest intel
lect that ever did bestride this world, and that
| Of the humblest angel that waits at the por-
tails OF Heaven, there is space as vast as that
descent of immensity which stretches in soil
| tary grandeur between the planet and the
fixed stars. 1t is in moral qualities alone and
| in acts of virtue. and obedience that we see
the stamp of fraternal relationship between
| the highest archangel and the lowliest saint
| disclosing, even amid the rags and sores OF
Lazarus, at Dives's gate, the celestial and i'm
mortal features of the Prince of Earth and
Heaven.