The phases of extreme piety and extreme vice which so rapidly succeed one another in the same individual among the epileptics, are more widely separated among those who are simply insane.  It has been noticed that among the morbid organic conditions which accompany the show of excessive piety and religious rapture in the insane, none are so frequent as disorders of the sexual organisation.  Conversely, the frenzies of religious revivals have not unfrequently ended in gross profligacy.  The encouragement of celibacy by the fervent leaders of most creeds, utilises in an unconscious way the morbid connection between an over-restraint of the sexual desires and impulses towards extreme devotion.

Another remarkable phase among the insane consists in strange views about their individuality.  They think that their body is made of glass, or that their brains have literally disappeared, or that there are different persons inside them, or that they are somebody else, and so forth.  It is said that this phase is most commonly associated with morbid disturbance of the alimentary organs.  So in many religions fasting has been used as an agent for detaching the thoughts from the body and for inducing ecstasy.

There is yet a third peculiarity of the insane which is almost universal, that of gloomy segregation.  Passengers nearing London by the Great Western Railway must have frequently remarked the unusual appearance of the crowd of lunatics when taking their exercise in the large green enclosure in front of Hanwell Asylum.  They almost without exception walk apart in moody isolation, each in his own way, buried in his own thoughts.  It is a scene like that fabled in Vathek’s hall of Eblis.  I am assured that whenever two are seen in company, it is either because their attacks of madness are of an intermittent and epileptic character and they are temporarily sane, or otherwise that they are near recovery.  Conversely, the curative influence of social habits is fully recognised, and they are promoted by festivities in the asylums.  On the other hand, the great teachers of all creeds have made seclusion a prominent religious exercise.  In short, by enforcing celibacy, fasting, and solitude, they have done their best towards making men mad, and they have always largely succeeded in inducing morbid mental conditions among their followers.

Floods of light are thrown upon various incidents of devotee life, and also upon the disgusting and not otherwise intelligible character of the sanctimonious scoundrel, by the everyday experiences of the madhouse.  No professor of metaphysics, psychology, or religion can claim to know the elements of what he teaches, unless he is acquainted with the ordinary phenomena of idiocy, madness, and epilepsy.  He must study the manifestations of disease and congenital folly, as well as those of sanity and high intellect.

GREGARIOUS AND SLAVISH INSTINCTS.