Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1876-02-22
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Tor jAc oxford Democrat.
Sanity UerSus Insanity; or, Who
is Sane?
By ". 2 sHArrUcK, NJ. D.

llr. Edi'0r:-In your issue Vi Feb. l,l,
I'm putting on record The Paris elopemeut,
ysu remarS ''her most Intimate friends
have observed unmistakabic evidences Of
ab,r-.i5n O mind" and the question
comes up, who is sane?
Oar men,.. characteristics are divided
into various phases, and to the mind OF
the writer a porfec. untoldmcut and
equilibrium Of force or action in them all.
would constitute sanity. One or more
characteristic, OF mind may be so
wrought upon, or . system OF one idea
ism 50 cultivated, as to rob other phases
OF mind of their normal force, and thus
by impoyerishing them Of their due vital
action, destroy the mental equilibrium
and give to other Misunderstanding TO
tho degree OF non equiibrium-iHdica.
tons OF being "old. " singular" "ian-
c.iul,n radical" "a little lunay," or
showing mental alteration. insanity"
g.. Education and circumsta nces, de-
yeiope a. times what some would con.
slider mental alteration. Tho business
man gets his finances in tangle, his
caution and conscienliousness are in
allegiance. and secretivoness with acquisi
tiyenoss getting the ascendancy, (the
writer being 10 phrenologis, may err in
e.ucidatlng mental characteristics from q
/ chronological basi,) alteration of mind
is expressed in forgery. but not usually
recognized IS such, unless there is a
severe re. action, as in the case OF Holden
the great iorger of Boston some forty
| years ago; 3 business mau OF u nquesliOn.
ed integrity up 10 his death by suicide,
| perpelrated before the forgery was dis
covered. The suicidal act led all to ayow
him insane, had il not been for this crown.
ing expression o. mental alteration he
would been considered great criminal,
but counted sane.
The burglar and highwayman argues
from standpoint OF thought, founded on
the suggestion that "the world oCeS him a
living" Failure in business, lack OF en-
pioyment, inability 10 get work or lack OF
inclination prompts him to strike out a
path OF independent action, and ne makes
q guerilla raid upon society and its laws,
forgetting that he o,0es to the world order,
honesty and manhood.
The arsenic poisoner in Green, who last
week plead gully, allows vituperative
spleen to grow by nursing an insane NAL.
ice, ultimating in u wholesale attempt at
murder.
The man at Lyndon, VT, from his cir
cumstauces and surroundings, lets an
irascible, choleric disposition fret him 10
the raw, and getting the ascendancy,in a
moment of ungovernable fury-parox-
ysmal insanity-cleaves the skull of his
father, murders his mother with the same
ak, stabs repeatedly his wife in the face
aud breast. and finishes his evolutions by
cutting his own throat and leaping from
6 beam in his barn with rope about his
neck.
To put mental alteration in another
form, Catholics and Protestants supposed
they were doing God service, in the per.
secutions. martyrdoms and massacring of
each the other. Each worked for Christ's
sake, but the question arises, can man be
won TO Christ by violence and blood ?
Deyin, an anti Catholic lecturer, devel.
opes q mental alteration through one.
idea-ism, and makes Incorporate speeches
which exasperate the Catholics OF Bidde-
ford and they mob him; forgetting that
one of the fundamental laws of the country
IS free speech, Each is absorbed in the
one idea that the other is villainOusly
wrong.
The Universalist considers the partialist
view of the Ca,yinist an insane belief,
and the c.esl tel,A.l 3 I portion OF God
children are to te damned to eternal tor
ment, a faith that would engender in
sanity in the believer. While the Par.