means.  There is considerable analogy between the judicious treatment of children and that of insane persons.  Locke has observed “the great secret of education is in finding out the way to keep the Child’s Spirit easy, active and free; and yet, at the same time, to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw him to things which are uneasy to him.”  Even with the more violent and vociferous maniacs, it will be found best to approach them with mild and soft persuasion.  Every pains should be taken to excite in the patient’s mind a desire of esteem.  Though this may not be sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist the strong irregular tendency of their disease; yet, when properly cultivated, it may lead many to struggle to overcome and conceal their morbid propensities, or at least, to confine their deviations within such bounds as do not make them obnoxious to those about them.  This struggle is highly beneficial to the patient; by strengthening his mind, and conducing to a salutary habit of self-restraint, an object, no doubt, of the greatest importance to the care of insanity by moral means.

It frequently occurs, that one mark of insanity is a fixed false conception, and a total incapacity of reasoning.  In such cases, it is generally advisable to avoid reasoning[24] with them, as it irritates and rivets their false perception more strongly on the mind.  On this account, every means ought to be taken to seduce the mind from unhappy and favourite musings; and particularly with melancholic patients; they should freely partake of bodily exercises, walking, riding, conversations, innocent sports, and a variety of other amusements; they should be gratified with birds, deer, rabbits, etc.  Of all the modes by which maniacs may be induced to restrain themselves, regular employment is perhaps the most efficacious; and those kind of employments are to be preferred, both on a moral and physical account, which are accompanied by considerable bodily action, most agreeable to the patient, and most opposite to the illusions of his disease.

In short the patient should be always treated as much like a rational being as the state of his mind will possibly allow.  In order that he may display his knowledge to the best advantage, such topics should be introduced as will be most likely to interest him; if he is a mechanic or an agriculturalist, he should be asked questions relating to his art, and consulted upon any occasion in which his knowledge may be useful.  These considerations are undoubtedly very material, as they regard the comforts of insane persons; but they are of far greater importance as they relate to the cure of the disorder.  The patient, feeling himself of some consequence, is induced to support it by the exertion of his reason, and by restraining those dispositions, which, if indulged, would lessen the respectful treatment he wishes to receive, or lower his character in the eyes of his companions and attendants.