lunatic as a result of this brutal treatment. I am strongly inclined to the opinion that even the extraordinary benevolence of Howard was one of the symptoms of the disease of his brain; for insanity may have good as well as evil manifestations, and such exceptional self-sacrifice as his — so blind, so persistent, so life-enduring — is just as liable to proceed from a morbid state as the directly opposite qualities of ungovernable rage, intense hate, or cruelty. There is a point beyond which not only forbearance, but also the manifestations of benevolence, charity, self-sacrifice, devotion, spirituality — of all the higher and nobler qualities of humanity — may cease to be virtues.'
"Very much of the cruelty that we meet with in every-day life, is the work of the partially insane. I know some realty good men who sometimes, under peculiar circumstances, act more like lunatics than reasonable beings. I knew a farmer, a conscientious and worthy man, who was at times attacked with paroxysms of rage, so violent and irresistible, that he would beat his oxen unmercifully, and without provocation. An acquaintance of mine told me that his father, who was one of the kindest of men in his family, very often whipped his children almost to death, and that, too, despite the tearful appeals of his wife, to whom he was most devotedly attached."
A clear complexion cannot be maintained by one who continually frets, gets angry, or nurses any of the harsher feelings or passions. Neither can purgative medicines produce the desired effect, nor arsenic, nor vitriol, nor the poisonous pastes, or doubtful washes sold for that purpose. What is really required, in addition to other and widely different methods already set forth herein, — because bodily (chemical) states unquestionably react upon the spirit, — is the occasional use of a mild aperient; avoidance of too much highly spiced food, hot drinks, rich pastry, liquors, and, above all, the wines and alcoholic stimulants in common use, — for they are all alike ruinous to health, teeth, elasticity, magnetic power, spirits, and complexion. What is universally wanted is a method of life and education which will give existence itself a pleasant flavor and fillip, and through the jocund health thus naturally had, — the verve stimulant of electrified blood, —charged by nature herself, dissolve all morbid accumulations in the system, and vacate them thence forthwith. Health of that sort is
