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46 galton.org
46 
Inquiries into Human Faculty
from which it springs is however not without its merits, as has been well
pointed out, since a large proportion of the enthusiastic men and women
to whose labour the world is largely indebted, have had that constitution,
judging from the fact that insanity existed in their families.
The phases of extreme piety and extreme vice, which so rapidly
succeed one another in the same individual among the epileptics, are more
widely separated among those who are simply insane. It has been noticed
that among the morbid organic conditions which accompany the show of
excessive piety and religious rapture in the insane, none are so frequent as
disorders of the sexual organisation. Conversely, the frenzies of religious
revivals have not unfrequently ended in gross profligacy. The
encouragement of celibacy by the fervent leaders of most creeds, utilises
in an unconscious way the morbid connection between an over-restraint of
the sexual desires and impulses towards extreme devotion.
Another remarkable phase among the insane consists in strange views
about their individuality. They think that their body is made of glass, or
that their brains have literally disappeared, or that there are different
persons inside them, or that they are somebody else, and so forth. It is said
that this phase is most commonly associated with morbid disturbance of
the alimentary organs. So in many religions fasting has been used as an
agent for detaching the thoughts from the body and for inducing ecstasy.
There is yet a third peculiarity of the insane which is almost universal,
that of gloomy segregation. Passengers nearing London by the Great
Western Railway must have frequently remarked the unusual appearance
of the crowd of lunatics when taking their exercise in the large green
enclosure in front of Hanwell Asylum. They almost without exception
walk apart in moody isolation, each in his own way, buried in his own
thoughts. It is a scene like that fabled in Vathek’s hall of Eblis. I am
assured that whenever two are seen in company, it is either because their
attacks of madness are of an intermittent and epileptic character and they
are temporarily sane, or otherwise that they are near recovery. Conversely,
the curative influence of social habits is fully recognised, and they are
promoted
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