Religio-psycho medici. Part 2 / by W.A.F. Browne.

  • Browne, W. A. F. (William Alexander Francis), 1806-1885.
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religio-psycho medici. Part 2 / by W.A.F. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    BELIGIO-PSYCHO MEDICI. BY W. A. F. BROWNE, LL.D. Formerly Medical Coinraissioner in Lunacy, Scotland. Part II. Creeds are slowly built up in the human spirit, and the struc- ture is scarcely completed when the darkness comes, in which no man can work. As the daylight fades into night they seem to shrink in their scope, become short and simple, and resemble the sacred epigram of the Jewish proselyte: I believe, help thou mine unbelief. The same process takes place in the sane and in the insane; dark and doubtful sayings are avoided ; sin, and shame, and sorrow, and weakness, and waywardness are confessed; there is a cry for help and forgiveness ; and we have often Listened with awe and reverence to the last words of the dying lunatic as they assumed the form, the infantile but expressive phrase which had been taught while the child knelt by a mother's knee. A large proportion of this class are struck down suddenly, are dazzled by the false glare of their own wild imaginings, or die in ignorance of an impending change ; but there are others—the calm, the resigned, the reverential—who, without any restoration of the light of reason, see, and feel, and appreciate the warnings of decaying strength, and, from the depths of an original and kindly heart, pour forth utter- ances which differ little from those of a sane and sincere intelligence. He prayeth best who loveth most. Even when the lips fail in their office, and imperfectly repeat or respond to the brief prayer suggested by others; the eye, the expression, the attitude, may all show forth that sense of supplication which Coleridge esteemed more fitting than the articulate sounds of cold, uninspired words. It is an impressive fact that you never meet a lunatic who is an atheist. Scepticism seems to fall off with the habits, and customs, and convention- alities of common life. Blasphemies may be heard, but they are uttered against a Deity whose existence, and some of whose grandest attributes, are acknowledged in the very defiance and irreverence of the utterance. The tenacity with which early religious impressions are held may depend upon the perpetuity of certain trains of morbid thought, upon the moral constitution, mental concen- tration, or, in many instances, upon the support, and strength, and consolation which they afford. That years, sufferings, hopeless seclusion effect no breach in the sincerity and en-