The Arizona sentinel., 1886-12-25


 of certain of the Princes of India.
 King Saul was 8 man of ability and
 judgment when placed over the Israeli
 ties, but power made him a mailman
 and led him to destruction. King Neb-
 uchadnezzar was at the head of one of
 the most absolute governments known
 to history, and we find him suffering from some unknown malady which
 historians regard as a certain form of insanity. The famous Babylonian mon-
 arch recorded in an inscription recently deciphered: '.For four years the seat
 of the Kingdom did not rejoice my heart. In all my dominions did not
 build a high place of power. The precious treasures of my kingdom Idid
 not lay up In Babylon buildings for
 myself and the honor of my kingdom
 1 did not lay out. In the worship of Merodach, my lord, the joyof my heart,
 in Babylon, the city of his sovereignty
 and the seat of my empire, did not
 sing his praises. I did not furnish his
 altars with victims, nor did 1 clean out the canals" From the description here
 given it would be difficult to arrive at any other conclusion than that Nebu-
 chadnezzar was laboring under insanity
 during the four years of which he speaks.
 Although many of the Roman En-
 perors were monsters in human shape,
 Tiberius and Domitian surpassed all the others in the insaneness of their actions. The former, man of fifty six when he donned the purple, began his reign with apparent wisdom and clemency, but soon gave way to the in- toxication of power. He shut himself away from the people on the island of Capera, and from that retreat ordered those who had incurred his displeasure to be put to death in the most shocking manner. Domitian also began his reign with mildness, but he, too, could not withstand the temptations of abso- lute authority, and became, if possible, more infamous than Tiberius. Both these Emperors, while they are regarded by all as unnatural tyrants, are thought to have been themselves victims of lunacy, and thus not without some ex- cuse for their cruelty. Theodore the Great, founder of the Ostrogothic mon- archy, during the latter years of his reign was the victim of Authorizations. Tine or igin of these was crime. Blinded by jealousy, and yielding to the evil coun- sells of his favorites, he ordered the ven erable statesman. Lymmachus. one of the most upright men of the age, to be put to death. Scarcely, however, had the order been carried into execution when the King was seized with remorse and began to reproach himself for the deed. His mind, strong as it had been, gave way to the strain, and he became haunted with direful visions, which ac- companied him to the end of his life As an example of this, it is related that one day a new kind of fish was placed upon his table, when he suddenly ut tered cry of terror and informed his courtiers that the head of the fish was like that of the murdered Lymmachus.
 Several of the Kings of France have been mentally infrm. Among these was Charles VII, the Victorious. The closing days of this monarch were ren- dered miserable by the undutiful con- duct of his son, who afterward became King under the title of Louis XI. and was known as ''the Tiberius of France" The young Prince was continually plotting against his father, until the latter finally became broken hearted and deranged. He had an ever-present fear of assassination, and utterly re- fused food, lest it should be poisoned. He passed several successive days in voluntary confinement without par taking of nourishment of any kind. After much deliberation his council re- solved that force be employed to rescue him from the horrible death he was upon himself through the fear of death. Nutriment in the form of iellies were accordingly administered, but it was too late. Nature, thus cruel l ly outraged, refused to rally, and Charles VII, after a successful reign of thirty-eight years, went down, crazy old man, to the miserable death of | starvation.
 Charles TX. of France was next thing to an imbecile from his youth, but after Catherine de Medici had induced him to sign the decree that sent thousands of innocent persons to eternity in the massacre of St. Bartholomew Day, he became a confirmed monomaniac. At the time of the execution of his order all the brutality in his nature exulted, and he heard with joy the shouts of the murderers in the streets of Paris. But | a narrowing remorse afterward took | possession of him. Visions of blood | startled him at all hours of the day 1 and night. He became a prey to the most d;reful fears. At ho rrro,,11 in violent exclamations, and would then relapse into the quietude of heart-rend- ing despair. He heard voices in the air him for his cruelty to the and the ghosts of his mur- 1ered victims never forsook his pres snce. His faithful physic an, Ambrose Pare; never deserted him, but no relief could be afforded the troubled monarch. For many months prior to his death he could scarcely rest at all. and when he | lied it was in the midst of the agonies and grief of an averaging conscience.
 Charles XII. of Sweden, sometimes | styeed the Mailman of the North, is an other case of royal lunacy. In some | he was man of ability, but in one direction he was a monomaniac. | This was his all-consuming passion for and military glory. His coun- try was at that time the most powerful | nation of the North, and his great de- sire was to extend it's boundaries until | he should be at the head of a nation i which would equal that governed by the Great or Genghi5 Kahn. He did have some successes. but at | ength he attacked the Russian Empire, md the Russians under Peter tha l