Cast. Is there not wisdom, Evelyn, in nursing some of these innocent illusions? I remember Kotzebue, in his “Journey to Paris,” relates the following anecdote of a young girl, romantically in love. Her lover had often accompanied her on the harp: he died, and his harp had remained in her room. After the first excess of her despair, she sunk into the deepest melancholy, and much time elapsed ere she would sit down to her instrument. At last she did so, gave some touches, and, hark! the harp, tuned alike, resounded in echo. The good girl was at first seized with a secret shuddering, but soon felt a kind of soft melancholy: she was firmly persuaded that the spirit of her lover was softly sweeping the strings of the instrument. The harpsichord, from this moment, constituted her only pleasure, as it afforded her the certainty that her lover was still hovering near her. One of those unfeeling men, who want to know and clear up every thing, once entered her apartment. The girl instantly begged him to be quiet, for at that very moment the dear harp spoke most distinctly. Being informed of the amiable illusion which overcame her reason, he laughed, and, with a great display of learning, proved to her by experimental physics, that all this was very natural. From that instant the maiden grew melancholy, drooped, and soon after died.
Ev. Truth is not always to be spoken, nor too much energy exerted, in our treatment; for many a mad act, as it will be called, is resorted to, as a relief.
Tirouane de Mericourt was wont to saturate her bedclothes with cold water, then lie down on it. Although an extreme remedy, it might yield her relief from burning pains. In the darker ages, she would have been chained and scourged.
But from Marcus Donatus we read the following case of still more melancholy interest; another illustration of your question, dear Castaly:
“Vicentinus believed himself too large to pass one of his doorways. To dispel this illusion, it was resolved by his physician that he should be dragged through this aperture by force. This erroneous dictate was obeyed; but, as he was forced along, Vicentinus screamed out in agony, that his limbs were fractured, and the flesh torn from his bones. In this dreadful delusion, with terrific imprecations against his murderers, he died.”
ABSTRACTION OF INTELLECT.
“I love to cope him in these sullen fits,
For then he’s full of matter.”
As You Like It.
Astr. So that in these cases it is one faculty only which is interrupted, and not the combined intellect. But all the faculties but one may be deranged, may they not?