tions of his converfation, and by conftant obfervation of his conduct, for a time fufficient to enable the fuperintendant to form a correct judgment." The cunning which fome patients exhibit on these occafions is remarkable, and has even at times deceived the penetration of Mr. Haflam himfelf.

Memory is the first power which decays, and this author obferves, that “infane people, who have been good scholars, after a long confinement, lofe, in a wonderful degree, the correctness of orthography. When they write, above half the words are frequently mis-fpelt; they are written according to the pronunciation." Deafnefs and tinnitus aurium are frequent fymptoms, and occafion many curious delufions.

Mr. Haflam has related feveral interefling cafes of infa nity, with the appearances on diffection. In all of these the brain fhowed unequivocal marks of organic difeafe. He divides the caufes of infanity into physical and moral.

"Under the firft are comprehended repeated intoxication; blows received upon the head; fever, particularly when attended with delirium; mercury, largely and injudiciously administered; cutaneous eruptions repelled, and the fupprefiion of periodical or occafional difcharges and fecretions; hereditary difpofition, and paralytic affections." P. 209.

Amongft the moral caufes are enumerated

"The long endurance of grief; ardent and ungratified defires; religious terror; the difappointment of pride; fudden fright; fits of anger; profperity humbled by misfortunes: in fhort, the frequent and uncurbed indulgence of any paffion or emotion, and any fudden or violent affection of the mind." P. 210.

Many ingenious hypothefes refpecting the moon's influence on maniacs have been maintained. Mr. Haflam, who takes nothing for granted without full proof, kept a register for more than two years, and, in the courfe of his very extenfive practice, did not find, in any inftance, that the alte rations of the human intellect correfponded with, or were influenced by, the viciffitudes of this luminary." P. 217. Sometimes, indeed, by fhining brightly into the apartments of the infane, the moon may prevent them from fleeping, and thus augment the violence of their symptoms; but a lighted candle would produce a fimilar effect.

Mr. Haflam very fuccefsfully ridicules the commonly received opinion, that intellectual labour becomes a caufe of infanity. He difcuffes the important queftion of the hereditary difpofition of madness with acutenefs and great candour. We

would

would moft feriously imprefs the following obfervations of this author on the minds of our readers :—

"Parents and guardians, in the difpofal or direction of the choice of their children in marriage, fhould be informed, that an alliance with a family, where infanity has prevailed, ought to be prohibited. Having directed fome attention to enquiries of this nature, I am enabled truly to ftate, that, where one of the parents have [has] been infane, it is more than probable that the offspring will be firilarly affected."

66

Although the author has enumerated moral agents amongst the caufes of infanity, he flill evinces great reluctance in confidering them as fuch. From what he has flated, indeed, we may fairly infer, that he denies the exiftence of mind, and laughs at a difeafe of ideas." His diffections have always discovered more or lefs of organic disease, and he seems rather to fuppofe this altered condition of the organ is a caufe, and not an effect, of the disease. In fome inflances unquestionably this is the cafe, as when the complaint is confequent upon external violence. But furely the moft fceptical mind muft admit, that when a perfon becomes infane from fudden joy, from long-continued brooding over misfortune, from a malicious fpirit of hatred or of revenge, from difappointed love, or, in fhort, from any paffion of the mind, fome derangement, (and we will not blench from the question) fome" difeafe of ideas," occurs previoufly to any morbid change in the brain itself. Some people are fubjected to temporary infanity. from the leaft determination of blood to the head, or from the leaft contradiction or oppofition to their wifhes being offered; and in these the increafed flow of blood in the organ moft probably induces the complaint: the agent continuing to operate, the difeafe becomes permanent, and is then followed by inflammation in the brain, or its membranes. But this, in our opinion, is a fecondary effect. All that Mr. Haflam has been able to establish, is, that where infanity has existed for a confiderable time, after death the brain or its membranes have evinced the marks of having been fubjected to inflammation. This alfo is often the cafe in patients who have died from fever. We therefore think it would have been more philofophical if the author had fimply ftated the facts. which he had afcertained. The prefent fate of our anatomical knowledge does not warrant us to draw any positive conclufions refpecting the caufes of infanity; and we with Mr. H. had exercifed his ingenuity in tracing the first aberrations from fenfe, and in endeavouring to connect them with fome of the moral caufes which he has affigned, and

which we cannot doubt fometimes produce the difeafe before the evidences of inflammation can be eftablifhed, although ultimately they may be found. Again, infanity is not unfrequently confequent upon a difeafed state of the abdominal vifcera; is prefent at fome periods during the pregnancy of certain females, and occurs in fome young people at the period when certain changes in the genital organs take place. Yet many of fuch patients have recovered when the irritating caufe has ceafed to operate; and in fome of thofe who have died, no marks of a morbid affection have been detected in the brain, or its membranes. Puffin and Pinel have recorded many inftances which occurred in their patients in the hofpitals "Bicêtre," and " Salpêtrière," where no organic difeafe was fuppofed to exift, and which were cured, not by medicines, but by what Cabanis terms “l'hygienne morale."

Our limits preclude us from ftating many interefting par ticulars refpecting the probable event of the difeafe. But we cannot forbear noticing what Mr. Haflam has moit forcibly advanced on the fubject of religious madnefs," which is feldom cured. After a fhort and animated defcription of the nature and objects of religion, the author concludes,

"

"It is therefore finful to accufe religion, which preferves the dignity and integrity of our intellectual faculty, with being the caufe of its derangement. The mind becomes refreshed and cor. roborated by a fair and active exercife of its powers directed to proper objects; but when an anxious curiofity leads us to unveil that which must ever be fhrouded from our view, the despair, which always attends thofe impotent refearches, will neceffarily reduce us to the most calamitous state."

He then expreffes his veneration for the established church, and its learned and liberal-minded paftors. The methodists are feverely chaftifed.

"But what (fays this author) can be expected, when the most ignorant of our race attempt to inform the multitude; when the dregs of fociety fhall affume the garb of fanctity, and the holy office; and pretend to point out a privy path to heaven, or cozen their feeble followers into the belief that they poffefs a picklock for its gates? The difficulty of curing this fpecies of madness wilk be readily explained from the confideration, that the whole of their doctrine is a bafe fyftem of delufion, rivetted on the mind by terror and despair; and there is alfo good reafon to fuppofe, that they frequently contrive, by the grace of cordials, to fix the waverings of belief, and thus endeavour to difpel the gloom and dejection which these hallucinations infallibly excite." P. 267.

Upon

Upon the management and treatment of infane perfons many judicious obfervations occur, for which we must refer to the volume itfelf, which, however imperfect in fome refpects, contains the best and most practical account of infanity that we are acquainted with. The moft prominent defect in Mr. Haflam is his complete originality, which has led him to difdain the labours of other writers, and depend folely on his own experience. The facts which he has ftated on the fubject cannot be difputed, and thus the materials for forming a more complete hiftory of the complaint are augmented.. We think, if the author will condefcend to be flow fome pains on the ftudy of metaphyfics, and inform himself of the recent improvements which have been made in phyfiology, he may yet prefent us with what has long been wanting, a comprehenfive and fcientific work on infanity.

ART. VI. Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with Remarks by the late Henry Headley, A.B. and a Biographical Sketch by the Rev. Henry Kett, B. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 8vo. 2 vols. 14s. Sharpe.. 1810.

WE

us.

E have long and often wifhed for an opportunity to pay a tribute of tender and affectionate regard to the memory of Headley; and we confider ourfelves as under much obligation to Mr. Kett, for placing one fo defireable before We knew him well, obferved his talents progreffively ripening from early promife to mature fruit: faw him every day more qualified for the nobleft undertakings in the field of literature, and alas! too foon fnatched away by the force of an incurable difeafe. The following is a fhort abftract of his life, in part abridged from the account given by Mr. Kett, to the truth of which, in every particular, we can ourselves bear teftimony.

Henry Headley was born at Irftead in Norfolk in 1766. At an early age he was placed under the care of Dr. Parr, then master of the grammar-fchool at Norwich. More might have been faid by his biographer, on the qualities of mind which diftinguifhed him at this early period. Almoft every action of his life was characteristic of a fuperior elegance of mind, of tafte, and of genius. He had even as a boy a certain penfiveness of manner which conciliated efteem and fympathy; and which, though it might in part have been

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXV. MAY, 1810.

excited

excited by the delicacy of his conftitution, was promoted and increafed by his ftudious purfuits. From Norwich he removed, in 1782, to Oxford, where he became a meinber of Trinity College; and to this circumftance we probably are indebted for the two interefting volumes now before us in a fecond edition. Thomas Warton was then refident as fenior fellow of the college, and Headley naturally became acquainted with The Hiftory of English Poetry. This gave, or rather confirmed, the bias of his mind, and the ftudy of old English poetry fuperfeded every other literary purfuit.

He left Oxford after a refidence of three years, in which interval he loft his father. Mr. Kett informs us, that the enquiries of his friends could not for fome months learn the place of his refidence; but that at length it appeared that he was married, and had retired to Matlock in Derbyshire. We are able here to fill up a chafm in Mr. Kett's narrative: the truth is, that during his occafional vifits from Oxford to his friends in Norfolk, he formed an attachment of the tendereft kind to a very beautiful woman now alive, but of no fortune. Many of the moft charming and interefting of his poetical compofitions were addreffed to this lady. The connection appeared to their common friends to be indifcreet, and the object of his affections married a deferving man, with whom fhe is now happy in a lovely family. The writer of this article has the frongeft reafon to believe, that he married haftily in the anguifh of difappointment; more it is not neceffary to fay, nor would thus much have been introduced, if the perfon whom he married had furvived him. From Matlock he went to refide at Norwich, and in a fhort time the confumptive tendency of his conftitution rendered it advilable to make trial of the climate of Lifbon. Thither he accordingly went, and forry is the writer to add, that he went alone. The malady had already made alarming pro grefs, and he furely wanted perpetually the tender attentions of a fympathetic friend. He returned from Lifbon only to die, which he did at Norwich in November 1788.

What Headley might have produced, had health been given him to perfevere in the line of ftudy in which he had engaged, may cafily be conjectured from the examination of thefe two volumes. With the exception of the very few poetical collections of the kind, from the Paradife of Dainty Devifes to the Mufe's Library by Mrs. Cooper, this mifcelTiny by Mr. Headley may be faid to have led the way to all the beautiful compilations which have fucceeded; to have