The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-10-21
Robert Dale Owen Fully Restored.

hODeTC Ddl6 OWeu HAS DecH TetuTfteu
to the world, as his physicians say, COM
pletely restored. Before taking leave of
the Indiana Hospital for the Insane,
where he had been confined for three
months, he addressed to the Superin.
tendent, DIR. Orpheus Everts, a letter, in
which he reviews his own case as follows:
When my children, actuated by a sin
gle desire for their fathers welfare, and
acting under the advice of older persons,
brought me here, am not prepared to
say that they did an injudicious thing.
In some cases the boldest is also the
wisest policy. 1t is true that when a
distinguished man of letters of my &C
quaintance, working for the Harpers,
found at last that he had overtasked his
brain and nerves, it was not deemed
necessary to seclude him, as / have been
secluded, from the world; my incomings
and outgoings, and all my habits regu-
lated and governed, as far as practicable,
by the will of others-he simply "loafed
about" Gas he himself. afterward ex-
pressed it to me) for a year or more,
warned, when he occasionally returned
to his desk, that the time for resumption
had not arrived.
But / come of race strCng-willed,
sanguine, withal somewhat inpetuous,
and in my case heroic treatment may
have been more needed than in his.
Napoleon BOnaparte was in the habit
of judging men and measures by their
success; not bad test, upon the whole,
got rid of all dyspeptic symptoms what
ever, but my physical health having
very essentially improved during my
stay here, find myself much more tran
quil--less excitable than when l was
placed under your care. Therefore ! dc
not regret what has happened, except in
so far as it may have given pain or un
easiness to many dear and kind friends
in this country and in Europe, who, not
knowing the exact state of my case, may
have imagined my condition to be linger
ing, if not hopeless.
No man, under circumstances such al
mine, can be competent Judge of his
own past condition; yet it seems to me
(taking, l think, dispassiOnate view Of
what has happened) that my condition
was not dissimilar to that of my friend
alluded to above-exhaustio of brain
and nerve force by overwork, at first
and until what l felt to be arbitrary re
straint tended to irritation.
Bulwer, who ought to know, says we'll
"There is nothing more salutary to active
men than occasional intervals of repose
when we look within instead of without
and examine almost insensibly what W,
have done, what we are capable o
doing"
/ have had proof during the tire,
months of my residence in this hospital
that the above remark was just. / hav'
seen much in the place also that fur
nished material for new thought, ant
have learned much that will benefit M
in the future. And, hope, have gainet
many friends in class which l hat
rarely, until now, had such opportunit!
of studying.
seem, also, to have made gain by m!
seclusion here, in the way of reputation
If man wishes to be well spoken of b!
those who had hitherto sighted or re
proved him, he had better either die o
suffer temporary civic death by con
finement in lunatic asylum. Demortai
mil nisi bonum we speak with tende
favor of the dead. This has been ampl!
illustrated by the many newspaper no
tees of myself which have fallen unde
my observation since an inmate of thi
institution. l trust that on entering tn
world again l shall give no cause for re
traction of these good opinions of tn
press, so kindly volunteered while TEN
porarily secluded.