_Mental Hygiene_. By I. RAY, M. D. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
Dr. Ray, as many of our readers may know, is a physician eminent in the
speciality of mental disorders. He is at present the head of the Butler
Hospital for the Insane in Providence, Rhode Island. The four first
chapters of his book, chiefly relating to matters which may be observed
outside of a hospital, come under our notice. The fifth and last
division, addressed to the limited number of persons who are conscious
of tendencies to insanity, has no place in an unprofessional review.
This little treatise upon "Mental Hygiene" carries its own evidence as
the work of a disciplined mind, content to labor patiently among the
materials of exact knowledge, and gradually to approximate laws in the
spirit of scientific investigation. Mental phenomena are analyzed by Dr.
Ray as material substances are analyzed by the chemist,--though, from
the nature of the case, with far less certainty in results. Yet there is
scarcely anything of practical moment in the book which may not be found
in the popular writings of other prominent men,--such, for example, as
Brodie, Holland, Moore, Marcel, and Herbert Spencer. We say this in no
disparagement; there is no second-hand flavor about these cautious
sentences. Dr. Ray has investigated for himself, and his conclusions are
all the more valuable from coinciding with those of other accurate
observers. It is agreeable to chronicle a contrast to that flux of
quasi-medical literature put forth by men who have no title (save,
perhaps, a legal one) to affix the M. D. so pertinaciously displayed.
For there has lately been no lack of books of quotations, clumsily put
together and without inverted commas, designed to puff some patent
panacea, the exclusive property of the compiler, or of volumes whose
claim to originality lay in the bold attempt to work off a life-stock of
irrelevant anecdotes, the miscellaneous accumulations of a
country-practitioner. Such authors--by courtesy so called--are possibly
well-meaning amateurs, but can never be mistaken for scientists. We
thank Dr. Ray for a book which, as a popular medical treatise, is really
creditable to our literature.
Yet, mixed with much admirable counsel hereafter to be noticed, there
are impressions given in this volume to which we cannot assent. And our
chief objection might be translated into vulgar, but expressive
parlance, by saying, that, in generalizing about society, the writer
does not always seem able to sink the influences of the shop. We have
been faintly reminded of the professional bias of Mr. Bob Sawyer, when
he persuaded himself that the company in general would be better for a
blood-letting. We respectfully submit that we are not quite so mad
as--for the interests of science, no doubt--Dr. Ray would have us. The
doctrine, that, do what he will, the spiritual welfare of man is in
fearful jeopardy, is held by many religionists: we are loath to believe
that his mental soundness is in no less peril. Yet a susceptible person
will find it hard to put aside this book without an uncomfortable
consciousness, that, if not already beside himself, the chances of his
becoming so are desperately against him. For what practicable escape is
offered from this impending doom? Shall we leave off work and devote
ourselves to health? Idleness is a potent cause of derangement. Shall we
engage in the hard and monotonous duties of an active calling? Paralysis
and other organic lesions use up professional brains with a frequency
which is positively startling. Shall we cultivate our imagination and
make statues or verses? The frenzy of artists and poets is proverbial.
At least, then, we may give our life-effort to some grand principle
which shall redeem society from its misery and sin? Quite impossible!
The contemplation of one idea, however noble, is sure to produce a
morbid condition of the mind and distort its healthy proportions. Still
there is a last refuge. By fresh air and vigorous exercise a man may
surely keep his wits. We will labor steadily upon the soil, and never
raise our thoughts from the clod we are turning! Even here the Doctor is
too quick for us, and cries, "Checkmate!" with the fact that the Hodges
of England and the agriculturists of Berkshire have a great and special
gift at lunacy.
Of course, the preceding paragraph is very loosely written. We
cheerfully admit that it might be impossible to quote from the book any
single proposition to which, taken in a certain sense, a reasonable man
would object. Nevertheless, there is a total impression derived from it
which we cannot feel to be true. There is no sufficient allowance for
the fact that what is most spirited and beautiful and worthy in modern
society comes from that diversity of human pursuits which necessitates
the concentration of individual energy into narrow channels. Neither to
balance his mind in perfect equilibrium, nor to keep his body in highest
condition, is the first duty of man upon earth. The Christian
requirement of self-sacrifice often commands him to risk both in service
to his neighbor. Besides, as we shall presently show, men of equal
capacity in other branches of human inquiry do not agree with what seems
to be Dr. Ray's estimate of the highest sanity. When we are warned to
avoid "men of striking mental peculiarities," (our author advancing the
proposition that such association is not entirely harmless to the most
hardy intellect,)--when we are called upon to ostracize those who think
that their short lives on earth can be most useful to others by
exclusive devotion to some great principle or regenerating idea,--the
thoughtful reader will question the instruction. The adjectives
"extreme" and "fanatical" have, during the last twenty years, been
applied to most valuable men of various parties and beliefs; they have
been so applied by masses of conventionally respectable and not
insincere citizens. But that the persons thus stigmatized have, on the
whole, advanced the interests of civilization, freedom, and morality, we
fervently believe.
It is in a very different direction that keenest observers have seen the
real peril of modern society. De Tocqueville has solemnly warned our
Democracy of that over-faith in public opinion which tends to become a
species of religion of which the Majority is the prophet. John Stuart
Mill has emphasized his conviction that the boldest individuality is of
the utmost importance to social well-being, and has urged its direct
encouragement as peculiarly the duty of the present time. Herbert
Spencer has written most eloquent warnings on the danger of perverting
certain generalizations upon society into a law for the private citizen.
He has declared that the wise man will regard the truth that is in him
not as adventitious, not as something that may be made subordinate to
the calculations of policy, but as the supreme authority to which all
his actions should bend. He has shown us that the most useful citizens
play their appointed part in the world by endeavoring to get embodied in
fact their present idealisms: knowing that if they can get done the
things aimed at, well; if not, well also, though not so well. Now our
complaint is, that Dr. Ray generalizes upon the limited class of facts
which has come under his professional observation. There may be a feeble
folk who have gone mad over Mr. Phillips's speeches or Mrs. Dall's
lectures. This is not the place to discuss the methods or ends of either
of these conspicuous persons. But shall we make nothing of the possible
numbers of young men, plunging headlong at the prizes of society after
the manner which Dr. Ray so intelligently deprecates, who have waked to
a new standard of success by seeing one with talents which could gain
their coveted distinctions passing them by to pursue, in uncompromising
honesty of conviction, his solitary way? Shall we not consider the
city-bred girls, confined in circles where the vulgar glitter of wealth
was mitigated only by the feeblest dilettanteism,--spirited young women,
falling into a morbid condition, whose pitiableness Dr. Ray has well
illustrated,--who have yet been strengthened to possess their souls in
health and steadiness by a voice without pleading in their behalf the
right to choose their own work and command their own lives? When we are
warned against those who come to regard it "as a sacred duty to
vindicate the claims of abstract benevolence at all hazards, even though
it lead through seas of blood and fire," our adviser is either basing
his counsel upon the very flattest truism, or else intends to indorse a
popular cry against men who claim to have founded their convictions on
investigation the most thorough and conscientious. Take the vote of the
wealth and education of Europe to-day, and Abraham Lincoln will be
pronounced a fanatic vindicating the claims of abstract benevolence
"through seas of blood and fire." Go back into the past, and consult one
Festus, a highly respectable Roman governor, and we shall learn that
Paul was beside himself, nay, positively mad, with his much learning. We
repeat that it is for the infinite advantage of society that exceptional
men are impelled to precipitate their power into very narrow channels.
The most eminent helpers of civilization have been penetrated by their
single mission,--they have known that in concentration and courage lay
their highest usefulness. Let us not judge men who are other than these.
We will not question the importance of a Goethe, with his scientific
amusements, stage-plays, ducal companionships, and art of taking good
care of himself; but we cannot deny at least an equal sanity to the
"fanatic" Milton, who deemed it disgraceful to pursue his own
gratification while his countrymen were contending against oppression,
who was content to sacrifice sight in Liberty's defence, and to live an
"extreme" protester against the profligacies of power and place.
But we linger too long from the solid instruction of this book. Dr. Ray
considers the existence of insanity or remarkable eccentricity in a
previous generation a prolific source of mental unsoundness. He
addresses words of most solemn warning to those who have not yet formed
the most important connection in life. A brain free from all congenital
tendencies to disease results from a rigid compliance with the laws of
parentage. The intermarriage of those related by blood is no uncommon
cause of mental deterioration. Dr. Ray thinks that the facts collected
in France and America upon this point are much more conclusive than a
recent Westminster reviewer will allow. We are told that in this country
the mingling of common blood in marriage is more frequent than is
generally supposed, and that, of all agencies which have to do with the
prevalence of insanity and idiocy, this is probably the most potent. A
vigorous body is of course an important condition to high mental health,
and what is said upon this head is tersely written and very sensible. We
are told that "those much-enduring men and women who encountered the
privations of the colonial times have been succeeded by a race incapable
of toil and exposure, whom the winds of heaven cannot visit too roughly
without leaving behind the seeds of dissolution." Here and elsewhere Dr.
Ray cites the passion for light and emotional literature as a proof of
our degeneracy. We have certainly nothing to say in behalf of that
quality of modern character produced by the indolent reading of
sensational writing. Still it may be questioned whether the enormous
supply of bad books has not increased the demand for good ones,--just as
quacks make practice for physicians. The readers of the Ledger stories
have learned to demand a weekly instalment of the good sense and
sobriety of Mr. Everett. And we are disposed to accept the view of a
late American publisher, who declared that as a business-transaction he
could not do better than subscribe to the diffusion of spasmodic
literature, since it directly promoted the sale of the best authors in
whose works he dealt. The craving for an intense and exciting literature
Dr. Ray attributes to "feverish pulse, disturbed digestion, and
irritable nerves." No doubt he is right,--within limits. But may not a
_healthy_ laborer find in the startling effects of the younger Cobb
refreshment as precisely adapted to idealize his life, and divert his
thoughts from a hard day's work, as that for which the college-professor
seeks a tragedy of Sophocles or a romance of Hawthorne?
The chapter treating of "Mental Hygiene as affected by Physical
Influences" begins with such warnings against vitiated air as all
intelligent people read and believe,--yet not so vitally as to compel
corporations to reform their halls and conveyances. The remarks upon
diet have a very practical tendency. Dr. Ray, while declining to commit
himself to any theory, is very emphatic in his leanings towards what is
called vegetarianism. He questions the popular impression that
hard-working men require much larger quantities of animal food than
those whose employments are of a sedentary character. Although
confessing that we lack statistics from which to establish the relative
working-powers of animal and vegetable substances, Dr. Ray declares that
the few observations which have met his notice are in favor of a diet
chiefly vegetable. The late Henry Colman was satisfied that no men did
more work or showed better health than the Scotch farm-laborers, whose
diet was almost entirely oatmeal. In the California mines no class of
persons better endure hardships or accomplish greater results than the
Chinese, who live principally on vegetable food. It is also noticed, as
pertinent to the point, that the standard of health is probably much
higher among the people just named than among our New-England laborers.
Dr. Ray sums up by saying that "there is no necessity for believing that
the supply required by the waste of material which physical exercise
produces cannot be as effectually furnished by vegetable as by animal
substances." This is strong testimony from a physician of standing and
authority. Not otherwise have asserted various reform-doctors who are
not supposed to move in the first medical circles. The value of any
approximate decision of the vegetarian question can hardly be
overestimated. There are thousands of families of very moderate means
who strain every nerve to feed their children upon beef and mutton,--and
this with the tacit approval, or by the positive advice, of physicians
in good repute. Can our children be brought up equally well upon
potatoes and hasty-pudding? May the two or three hundred dollars thus
annually saved be better spent in a trip to the country or a visit to
the sea-side? He would be a benefactor to his countrymen who could
affirmatively answer these questions from observations, statistics, and
arguments which commanded the assent of all intelligent men.
Dr. Ray forcibly exhibits the radical faults of our common systems of
education. He exposes the vulgar fallacy, that the growth and discipline
of the mind are tested by the amount of task-work it can be made to
accomplish. The efficiency of a given course of training is indicated by
the power and endurance which it imparts,--not by such pyrotechny as may
be let off before an examining committee. The amount of labor in the
shape of school-exercises habitually imposed on the young strains the
mind far beyond the highest degree of healthy endurance. This is shown
by illustrations which our limits compel us to omit: they are worthy to
be pondered by every conscientious parent and teacher in the land. Our
national neglect of a right home-education brings Dr. Ray to a train of
remarks which sustains what we were led to say in noticing Jean Paul's
"Levana" a few months ago. "How many of this generation," writes our
author, "complete their childhood, scarcely feeling the dominion of any
will but their own, and obeying no higher law than the caprice of the
moment! Instead of the firm, but gentle sway that quietly represses or
moderates every outbreak of temper, that checks the impatience of
desire, that requires and encourages self-denial, and turns the
performance of duty into pleasure,--they experience only the feeble and
fitful rule that yields to the slightest opposition, and rather
stimulates than represses the selfish manifestations of our nature." The
criticism is just. It is to parents, rather than to children, that our
educational energies should now address themselves. For what
school-polish can imitate the lustre of a youth home-reared under the
authority of a wise and commanding love? But our adult-instruction must
go deeper than a recommendation of the best scheme of household
discipline the wit of man can devise. Be the government as rigid as it
may, the children will imitate the worst portions of the characters
disclosed in the family. The selfish and worldly at heart will find it
wellnigh impossible to endow their children with high motives of action.
We cordially indorse what is said of those harpy-defilers of knowledge
known as juvenile books. A limited use of the works of Abbott,
Edgeworth, Sedgwick, and a very few others may certainly be permitted.
But the common practice of removing every occasion for effort from the
path of the young--of boning and spicing the mental aliment of our
fathers for the palates of our sons--would be a ridiculous folly, if it
were not a grievous one. Suitable reading for an average boy of ten
years may be found in the best authors. For it is well observed by Dr.
Ray, that, if the lad does not perceive the full significance of
Shakspeare's thoughts or the deepest harmony of Spenser's verse, if he
does not wholly appreciate the keen sagacity of Gibbon or the quiet
charm of Prescott, he will, nevertheless, catch glimpses of the higher
upper sphere in which a poet moves, and fix in his mind lasting images
of purity and loveliness, or he will learn on good authority the facts
of history, and feel somewhat of its grandeur and dignity. To the sort
of reading which naturally succeeds the Peter-Parley dilutions of
wisdom we can only allude to thank Dr. Ray for speaking so clearly and
to the point.
But it becomes necessary to pass over many pages which we had marked for
approving comment. In conclusion it may be said that this treatise on
Mental Hygiene is full of wholesome rebukes and valuable suggestions.
Yet the impression of New-England, or even of American life, which a
stranger might receive from it, would be lamentably false. In a special
department, Dr. Ray is an able scientist. To a wide-embracing philosophy
he does not always show claims. There has been heart-sickening
corruption in all prosperous societies,--especially in such as have been
debauched by complicity with Slavery. It is the duty of some men of
science and benevolence to be ever probing among the defilements of our
fallen nature, to breathe the tainted air of the lazar-house, to consort
with madness and crime. Few men deserve our respect and gratitude like
these. But let them be cheered by remembering that in the great world
outside the hospital there are still elements of worthiness and
nobility. Wealth was never more wisely liberal, talents were never held
to stricter accountability, genius has never been more united with pure
and high aims, than in the Loyal States to-day. The descendants of
"those much-enduring men and women of colonial times" have not shown
themselves altogether "incapable of toil and exposure." From offices and
counting-rooms, from libraries and laboratories, our young men have gone
forth to service as arduous as that which tried their fore-fathers. How
many of them have borne every hardship and privation of war, every
cruelty of filthy prisons and carrion-food, yet have breasted the
slave-masters' treason till its bullet struck the pulse of life! Let us
remember that the most divergent tendencies of character, even such as
we cannot associate with an ideal poise of mind, may work to worthiest
ends in this ill-balanced world of humanity. The saying of Novalis, that
health is interesting only in a scientific point of view, disease being
necessary to individualization, shows one side of the shield of which
Dr. Ray presents the other.