INJURY OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM, FROM FREQUENT MEETINGS AND RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DOCTRINES. DANGER OF AN INCREASE OF INSANITY, APOPLEXY, PALSY, EPILEPSY, CONVULSIONS, HYDROCEPHALUS, TIC DOLOREUX, AND ALL NERVOUS DISEASES FROM THE ABOVE CAUSES PARTICULARLY INJURIOUS TO FEMALES-CAUTIONS AND AD- Connexion between the mind and body, 267-Brain the or- gan of the mind, 268-Excitement of the mind increases the action of the brain, 270—This increased action fre- quently causes disease, 274-Epilepsy and convulsions from this cause, 277-Diseases of the heart--nervous maladies, 279--Tic doloreux, 281--Brain and nervous sys- tem of children very liable to be injured from mental ex- citement, 282-Do. of Women, 283-Religious excite- ment a cause of Insanity-extract from Esquirol on De- monomania, 285—Cases of Demonomania in this country, 290-Manner in which mental excitement causes convul- sions, 294-Great mental excitement particularly danger. ous to mothers, 297-Recommendations and cautions to Clergymen, 298--Medical Books for Clergymen, 302-Er- great utility in others, 317-Importance of devotional feel- ings, 318-Danger of connecting absurd measures with religious worship, 320-Denunciatory preachers, 323- A good clergyman a great blessing to a town, 325-Inju ry resulting from an entire neglect of religious worship, INTRODUCTION. The Religious Sentiment appears to be innate in man. It forms a part of his nature as truly as benevolence, or attachment; and like all our sentiments, it is stronger in some individuals than in others. Though all other living beings are strangers to it, man has in all ages exhibited it. No race of human beings have been known who had not a religion and some form of religious worship. The proof of this assertion is furnished by historians of the past, and by modern travellers.— "No nation is to be found," says Seneca, "so utterly destitute of law and morals as not to believe in gods of some kind or other." The savage tribes, the barbarian hordes, nations that are but slightly advanced in social life, and those who languish in the decrepitude of civilization, all exhibit the power of this indestructible sentiment."* This religious sentiment is not only innate, but it is one of the most powerful, if not actually the most so of our nature. It triumphs over all interests, and sways and rules mankind in all ages. This is also evident from history. It has impelled men and women, the *Benjamin Constant, De la Religion, consideree dans sa source, ses formes et ses developpements. Vol. v. Paris, 1826. A very instructive and eloquent work, which I hope the reader will consult. aged and the young, the savage and the civilized, to sacrifice themselves, their friends, offspring and dearest kindred, and driven nations into the most cruel and destructive wars the world has ever witnessed. It has caused people to forsake their families, their homes and country, and to exile themselves in the wilderness, or among the most savage tribes. In all ages this sentiment has led men to sacrifice their property, and to devote their time and abilities exclusively to its require ments. This universal sentiment continually impels men to the adoration of invisible and superior powers, and to discover methods of communicating with them; to appease their anger; to seek their forgiveness, and to obtain their aid and blessing. Hence has arisen religious worship; and the diversity of its forms, which the religious history of our race exhibits to us, and hence the innumerable objects of adoration. To use the words of the illustrious Gall,"Men adore every thing; fire, water, thunder, lightning, meteors, grasshoppers, crickets. The Mexicans worshipped Vitzliputzli the god of war, and Tescaliputza the god of penitence. The negroes and savages of America profess the worship of the Fetish gods, which erects animals, and inanimate beings the most absurd, into deities. The streaked serpent is the natural divinity of the people of Juidah. Several American nations, like the Egyptians, make gods of the crocodile; or, like the Philistines, of the fish of the sea. In the peninsula of Yucatan, children are placed under the protection of some animal, chosen at random, which thenceforth becomes their tutelary god. The Samoiedes and Laplanders worship several kinds of animals and stones, which they annoint; as of old the Syrians adored the stones called Boëtiles, and as even now some Americans do their conical stones. The ancient Arabians took a square stone for their divinity; and the god Casius of the Romans, called Jupiter Petræus by Cicero, was a round stone cut in the middle." "The ancient Germans made gods of bushy trees, fountains, and lakes; they worshipped, as still the Laplanders do, certain shapeless trunks, which they conceived to resemble divinity. The Franks paid adoration to the woods, waters, birds, and beasts. Those primitive modes of worship, which prevailed among the Egyptians and Germans, are found, at a later period, among the people of Greece; and it is impossible not to be struck with the conformity. Shapeless trunks were the first gods of the Greeks. The Venus of Paphos was a white pyramid; the Diana of the island of Euboea an unwrought piece of wood; the Thespian Juno a trunk of a tree; the Pallas and Ceres of Athens a simple stake, not stript; the Matuta of the Phrygians was a black stone, with irregular angles, which they said fell from heaven at Pessinuntum, and which afterwards was carried to Rome with great respect. Men have had, besides these absurd national divinities, various private objects of worship, from which they expected individual and special protection. Such were the gods of Laban, and the household gods of the Romans. In the kingdom of Issini, one chose for his Fetish a piece of wood; another, the teeth of a dog, a tiger, or an elephant. The seas were peopled with Tritons, Nereids, and divinities of different kinds ;—the plains with Nymphs and Fauns ;—the forests with Dryads and Hamadryads. Every rivulet, fountain, village, and city, had its divinity. All agreed |