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PASSIONAL DISEASES. 331
This is as genuine a disease as 1 shall have occasion
to describe, and its effects are of a very deplorable
character, moral and physical. It may be treated by
the facul
awakening other
'
passions ; by occupying
ties of industry and ambition ; and especially by the
cultivation of science and the reasoning powers. Wo
men are more liable to it than men, and youth more
than persons of mature age ; the ignorant, also, much
more than the educated ; and those who have few
thoughts, occupations, and more enjoyments, than those
who have many.
The state of the bodily health and this faculty have
reciprocating influences ; and this is also the case,
to a
great degree, with other passional diseases. A dys
peptic person, or an exhausted one, is more liable to
these paroxysms than a strong and healthy one. One
of the symptoms is a continual vociferous and senseless
praying ; another is a disposition to exhort every body,
and endeavor to affect them in the same manner, which
is, indeed, a characteristic of passional diseases ; another
consists in terrific ideas of God, and hell, and a future
damnation. The sufferer seems to stand on the brink
of a fiery gulf, and fancies that the whole human race,
with a few exceptions, are plunging into it, and suffer
of tortures. There are milder coses, in
ing an,eternity
which the patient dwells more on the ecstasies of the
heavenly state. The chronic cases are full of a dull,
bitter, vindictive, persecuting feeling ; all entirely con
trary lo any proper views of our relations to the Deity.
The water-cure, by its purifying and invigorating
effects, has a remarkable power over this disease ; and,
as the bodily health improves, there comes a healthier