Now, the nervous temperament, when fully developed, constitutes a condition which of itself is almost one of actual disease, besides predisposing to a long train of disorders of the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves, and other organs of the body. Persons thus organized rarely feel entirely well, and their active and somewhat unbalanced minds cause them to exaggerate the importance of the little ailments they may have, and not seldom to imagine the existence of others with which they are not affected. Their great impressibility makes them the slaves of their emotions; the acuteness of their senses, so far from giving them pleasure, is a source of pain and annoyance. A little mental disturbance induces tears; the full light of the sun causes headache; a loud noise upsets their equanimity for hours; the odor of flowers is oppressive in the extreme, and in the prick of a pin they feel as much pain as would a phlegmatic man in having his leg amputated. I have seen what are called nervous women weep profusely on being spoken to about the most indifferent matters. Bouchut states that he knew a lady, the mother of two fine and healthy children, who could not look at them without bursting into tears with the apprehension that they might suddenly die. She attended a church in which there was a picture of the Adoration of the Magi. The sight of the infant Jesus in a state of nudity in this picture, recalled to her how much Christ had suffered, and always brought on a fit of weeping. This lady was very excitable, dyspeptic, and a sufferer from neuralgia.
Then there are others, rarer, however, in number, whose tendencies are of a more joyous character. Everything pleases them inordinately. They go through the world in a hurried and bustling manner, impressed with an exaggerated idea of their own importance, always happy and always to be happier, till some trifling misfortune plunges them for a few moments into the most profound anguish of mind. With them invention succeeds invention, and failure failure; they are pursuing at the same time a dozen different routes to unbounded wealth, but never follow any one to the end, nor profit by the dearly-bought experience they so rapidly acquire.
As illustrating the rapidity with which persons endowed with the nervous temperament pass from one emotion to another, it is related of Voltaire, that when he heard of the death of the Marchioness du Châtelet, he burst into tears, and was inconsolable at the loss of his friend. Suddenly the Abbé de Chauvelin entered the room, and began to speak of some ludicrous events of the day. Voltaire soon became calm, then listened with pleasure, and at last broke out into hearty and repeated fits of laughter.
Persons of strongly-marked nervous temperaments are often subject to illusions, the true character of which they readily understand. Thus Pascal, who created this condition in himself by excessive study and neglect of his physical system, constantly saw a deep precipice at his side, which appeared to be ready to engulf him. In order to escape the distraction from his meditations which this image caused, he interposed an opaque screen between himself and the place where he seemed to see it, and by this means eventually banished the illusion.
A few days since I saw, in consultation with an eminent medical friend, a gentlemen from Cuba, who continually heard voices, the illusory character of which he fully recognized. Originally of a nervous organization, his predispositions had been intensified by the grief caused by the death of his wife a short time previously. There was no intermission in these voices except during sleep.
