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In the terminology of our theory we must, therefore, include two new terms, describing the variation of intensity of these two different states of mind.  The extremes meet at the points of Nitro-Bromidism and Hypo-Sulphitism, respectively.  Intensity of Bromidism becomes, then, Nitro-Bromidism, and we have seen how, through the artist’s, or through a Sulphite’s subtle point of view, such Nitro-Bromide becomes immediately sulphitic.

By a similar reasoning, a Hypo-Sulphite can, at a step, become bromidic.  The illustration most obvious is that of insanity.  We are not much amused, usually, by the quaint modes of thought exhibited by lunatics and madmen.

It cannot be denied, however, that their processes of thought are sulphitic; indeed, they are so wildly original, so fanciful, that we must denominate all such crazed brains, Hypo-Sulphites.  Such persons are so surprising that they end by having no surprises left for us.  We accept their mania and cease to regard it; it, in a word, becomes bromidic.  So, in their ways, are all cranks and eccentrics, all whose set purpose is to astonish or to shock.  We end by being bored at their attitudes and poses.

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The Sulphite has the true Gothic spirit; the Bromide, the impulse of the classic.  One wonders, relishing the impossible, manifesting himself in characteristic, spontaneous ways; the other delights in rule and rhythm, in ordered sequences, in authority and precedent, following the law.  One carves the gargoyle and ogrillion, working in paths untrod, the other limits himself to harmonic ratios, balanced compositions, and to predestined fenestration.  One has a grim, naif, virile humor, the other a dead, even beauty.  One is hot, the other cold.  The Dark Ages were sulphitic—­there were wild deeds then; men exploded.  The Renaissance was essentially bromidic; Art danced in fetters, men looked back at the Past for inspiration and chewed the cud of Greek thought.  For the Sulphite, fancy; for the Bromide, imagination.

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From the fifteenth century on, however, the wave of Sulphitism rose steadily, gradually dropping at times into little depressions of Euphuistic manners and intervals of “sensibility” but climbing, with the advance of science and the emancipation of thought to an ideal—­the personal, original interpretation of life.  The nineteenth century showed curiously erratic variations of the curve.  From its beginning till 1815, Sulphitism was upon the increase, while from that year till 1870 there was a sickening drop to the veriest depths of bromidic thought.  Then the Bromide infested the earth.  With his black-walnut furniture, his jig-saw and turning-lathe methods of decoration, his lincrusta-walton and pressed terracotta, his chromos, wax flowers, hoop skirts, chokers, side whiskers and pantalettes, went a horrific