_Of Demoniacs._
That the Dæmoniacs, [Greek: daimonizomenoi], mentioned in the gospels,
laboured under a disease really natural, tho' of an obstinate and
difficult kind, appears to me very probable from the accounts given of
them. They were indeed affected various ways. For sometimes, they rent
their garments, and ran about naked; striking terror into all those
whom they met, and even wounding their own bodies; so very furious,
that tho' bound with chains and fetters, they broke their bonds, and
rambled in the most lonely places, and among the sepulchres of the
dead. Sometimes also they cried out, that they were possessed by many
devils, which they imagined could pass out of themselves into other
bodies.[104] At other times, either they were worried, and made a
hideous noise;[105] or were thrown on the ground, without being hurt,
and the devil went out of them.[106]
[104] _See Matthew, Ch. viii. v. 28. Mark, Ch. v. v. 2. and
Luke, Chap. viii. v. 27._
[105] _Mark, Chap. i. v. 23-26._
[106] _Luke, Chap. iv. v. 33-35._
These are all actions of madmen; but the dispute is, whether they were
wrought by devils, or by the violence of the disease. Thus much is
certain, that in those times it was a common opinion among the jews,
that evil spirits frequently took possession of people, and tortured
them in so surprizing a manner, as if they were agitated by furies.
For in the whole catalogue of diseases, which afflict mankind, there
is no other, that seems so much to surpass the force of nature, as
this, in wretchedly tormenting the patient by fierce distractions of
the mind, and excessively strong, tho' involuntary, motions of the
body. But most certainly we find nothing sacred in all this, nothing
but what may arise from a natural indisposition of body. And in order
to place this my opinion in the stronger light, it may not be improper
to give a short discourse on madness; not indeed on that species,
which comes on in an acute fever, and goes off with it, which is
called a phrenzy, and is always of short duration; but that other
sort, which is rivetted in the body, and constitutes a chronical
disease.
Wherefore all madness is a disease of an injured imagination, which
derives its origin from the mind, having been too long a time fixed
on any one object. Hence proceed uneasiness and anxieties of mind
concerning the event. And by how much the things, whose images
incessantly occur to the imagination, are of greater moment in life,
the more violently they disturb the person; examples of which we see
particularly in love and religion, wherein hope, fear, despair, and
other contrary passions, succeeding each other by turns, drag the
person different ways. That this is the case, will not be doubted by
any one, who recollects, that a madman often has a good memory;
manages his affairs, except when some vain ideas come across his mind,
with tolerable prudence, nay sometimes with more than ordinary
cunning; and that he ofttimes recovers the intire and permanent use of
his reason, by a course of proper medicines. Therefore in this
disorder the person is first over-whelmed by terrifying ideas, which
are followed by wrath and fury, as attendants on anxiety: whence he
threatens and attempts to do acts of the utmost cruelty to those who
approach him, and thro' excess of anguish, frequently lays violent
hands even on himself: then he grows again melancholic; and thus rage
and dejection of spirits affect him alternately: moreover it is no
uncommon thing to see a person under these circumstances, especially
when the disease has taken deep root by length of time, seeking
unfrequented and solitary places, in order to avoid the conversation
of his fellow creatures,
_Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans._[107]
Gnawing his heart, shunning the steps of men.
[107] _Cicero, Tuscul. Disp. Lib. iii. 26. who has turn'd
into Latin this verse of Homer:_ "[Greek: Hon thumon katedôn,
patôn anthrôpôn aleeinôn]." _Il. Z. v. 202._
Now, people afflicted with this disorder, often live a long time. For
all mad folks in general bear hunger, cold, and any other inclemency
of the weather; in short, all bodily inconveniencies, with surprizing
ease; as they enjoy a strength of constitution superior to what might
be easily imagined. Likewise it frequently happens, that an epilepsy
comes on madness of a long standing. For these diseases are nearly
related; and in this case, we know by experience, that there remain
not the least hopes of recovery. Lastly it is to be observed, that the
patient is either frantic or melancholic, according as his habit of
body is disposed to receive this or that injury.
But that the casting out of devils, is nothing more than the removal
of madness, many do not believe, upon this account, that those things
which happen to persons thus affected, seem to them impossible to be
done by the force of nature. But certainly these gentlemen are too
much strangers to physic, and have not sufficiently attended to
phoenomena no less surprizing, which daily occur in other diseases. Do
we not often see that violent affections of the mind are the cause of
death? A sudden fright has destroyed many, and even excessive joy has
been fatal. A dangerous distemper sometimes passes from one part of
the body to another, in the twinkling of an eye. The venom thrown into
the mass of blood by the bite of a mad dog, generally lies still a
good while; and at the end of some weeks, sometimes months, exerting
its strength, it produces symptoms not inferior to those, which are
said to be produced by devils. What is more surprizing than some
things which fall out in pregnancies? If a pregnant woman happens to
have an eager desire for any thing, and is disappointed, she sometimes
marks the foetus with the figure or likeness of the object longed for,
on this or that part of the body. And, what is still more, and
approaches to a prodigy, upon the mother being terrified by a sudden
injury done to any one part, that very part in the child suffers the
same evil, and decays for want of nourishment. I know that the truth
of stories of this kind, is called in doubt by some physicians;
because they cannot conceive, how such things can happen. But many
examples, of which I have been an eye-witness, have freed my mind of
all scruples on this head. Now, the power of the imaginative faculty
is so stupendous, that the mind is not less affected by false, than by
true images, when daily subjected to them. This we find by experience
in those women, who are called witches, who, being under the
influence of such an error of the mind, frequently imagine that they
not only converse with devils, but also have enter'd into compacts
with them; and persist in these notions with such obstinacy, that,
when they are brought to a trial, they confess themselves guilty of
wickednesses, which they never perpetrated, though they know that they
must suffer death for their confession. Moreover, every body knows how
wonderfully the mind is disturbed in melancholies. One of them thinks
his head is made of glass, and is afraid of stirring abroad, for fear
of having it broken: another believes himself to be actually dead, and
refuses food, because the dead ought not to eat. There are a thousand
stories of this kind. I remember, a man of letters, with whom I was
well acquainted, who positively asserted that he was big with child,
and was vastly anxious for a happy delivery. I saw two others, who,
when alone, fancied they heard the words of people whispering them in
the ear. Nor is their case different, in my opinion, who persuade
themselves that they see ghosts and hobgoblins. For deliriums are a
kind of dreams of people awake; and the mind in both cases affects the
body differently, according to the nature of its objects.
From what we have said, it manifestly appears, how many different ways
the lessons of imagination, when they are confirm'd by long habit, are
capable of affecting a man, and entirely ruining his whole frame. But
every body knows, that the human mind is disturbed by nothing more
than by fear; the cause of which is self-love ingrafted in all men.
Whereas then, as Cicero very justly observes, _there is no nation so
savage, no man so rude, as not to have some notion of the gods_;[108]
it is no wonder, that men conscious of wicked deeds, should be struck
with the fear of God, whose empire over all created things they
acknowledged. For, as they attributed every good thing, every benefit
of this life, to the gods; so they were of opinion, that evils and
calamities were sent down by them in punishment of crimes. Now,
idolatry, as I said above,[109] had its origin among the Chaldeans;
and at first it consisted in the worship of the sun and moon, but
afterwards it was extended to the adoration of dæmons.[110] But these
were believed to be divine ministers; and that they were originally
the souls of heroes and great men, who were worshipped for services
done to mankind in general, or to their native country in particular.
And this dæmoniac religion being propagated from the Chaldæans to the
Phoenicians, then to the Egyptians, came afterwards to the Greeks,
thence to the Romans, and in progress of time to the other nations.
[108] _Tusc. quæst. Lib. i. 13._
[109] _Cap. i. p. 5._
[110] _See Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, p. 160._
But the jews, accustomed to ascribe every uncommon or wonderful work
of nature to the agency of angels, as ministers of the supreme deity,
could easily work up their minds to believe, that some dreadful
diseases, which injured the mind and body together, the causes whereof
they could not investigate, arose from the operation of evil angels.
For we learn from Philo Judæus,[111] with whom Josephus also agrees in
opinion, _that they believed there were bad as well as good angels;
that the good executed the commands of God on men, that they were
irreprehensible and beneficent; but the bad execrable, and every way
mischievous_.[112] But a more illustrious example of this matter
cannot be given, than in the narrative of Saul's disease,[113] of
which I have already treated.[114] Nor were madness and the epilepsy
the only diseases, which they imputed to devils. When Jesus had
restored speech to the _furious dumb man_, he is said to have done it
by _casting out a devil_.[115] And when he had cured another furious
person, who was _blind and dumb_, the pharisees reproached him _with
casting out devils by beelzebub the prince of the devils_.[116] In
fine, Christ himself uses this common way of expression, on occasion
of the _woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, whom he
freed from that infirmity_; by saying, that _satan had held her bound
these eighteen years_.[117]
[111] _Lib. de gigantibus._
[112] _De bello judaico, Lib. vii. Cap. 6._
[113] _See Samuel (or Kings) Book i. Chap. xvi._
[114] _Chap. iii. page 28, &c._
[115] _Matthew, Chap. ix. Verse 32._
[116] _Ib. Chap. xii. Verse 22._
[117] _Luke, Ch. xiii. v. 16._
And this custom of taking madmen for demoniacs, was not so peculiar to
the jews, but that it prevailed in other nations also. Hence in
Herodotus king Cleomenes is said to be driven into madness, not by any
dæmon, but by a habit of drunkenness, which he had contracted among
the Scythians, whereby he became frantic.[118] And whereas [Greek:
daimonan] signifies the same thing as [Greek: daimonion echein],
Xenophon uses this word for _furere_, to be raging mad or
furious.[119] Moreover Aristophanes, intending to express a high
degree of the same disease, employs the word [Greek: kakodaimonan],
and calls the highest degree of madness, not [Greek: manian], but
[Greek: kakodaimonian][120]. Hence also, as Aretæus observes, this
disease was called _morbus sacer_, or the sacred disease, _because it
was imagined that some dæmon had entered into the man_.[121] Wherefore
the physicians found it absolutely necessary to oppose this false
notion with all their might. Because the people were generally
persuaded, that diseases, which they believed to be caused by evil
spirits, were to be expelled, not by medical skill, but by religious
rites and ceremonies. Upon this account the prince of physicians
Hippocrates, or at least some one of his scholars, wrote a very useful
piece,[122] wherein he asserts that no diseases are inflicted on man,
immediately, by any divine power; and that those persons ought to be
accounted magicians and jugglers, who cover their ignorance with a
veil of sanctity, by infusing such notions into the minds of the
people.
[118] _Lib. vi. Cap. 84._
[119] _Memorabil. Lib. i._
[120] _Vid. Plutum, Act. ii. Scen. 3. v. 38. & Act. ii. Scen.
5. v. 15._
[121] [Greek: Dia tês doxês daimonos es ton anthrôpon
eisodou.] _De causis morbo diuturn. Lib. i. Cap. 4._
[122] _De morbo sacro._
But with regard to this power of the devils over human bodies,
believed equally by the jews and other nations, I have already said,
that the divinity ought not to be made a party concerned in imposing
diseases, which may possibly have natural causes; unless it be
expresly declared, that they were inflicted immediately by the hand of
God.[123] For of all the diseases, with which miserable mortals are
tormented, there are none so wonderful and dreadful to appearance, but
may be the natural consequences of bodily indispositions. Wherefore
God himself, if he thinks proper, can employ either natural causes, or
the ministry of good angels, to inflict all sorts of diseases on
mankind. And I hope nobody will believe, that the devils have had the
power granted them of torturing men at their wanton pleasure. But to
say more on this subject seems the less necessary; because two very
learned divines of our nation have already treated it in a full and
ample manner.[124]
[123] _Chap. iii. page 30._
[124] _See the works of Jos. Mede 1677 fol. discourse vi. and
enquiry into the meaning of demoniacs, &c._
Therefore in order to put an end to these demoniacal diseases, I will
now briefly shew, how they are to be treated. And first of all,
particular care should be taken, to keep the patient's mind employed
in thoughts directly contrary to those, which possessed it before: for
one set of ideas gives place to another, and by effecting this
change, the mind is brought out of the state in which it was: a
circumstance, to which the generality of physicians do not give
sufficient attention. When this can be brought about, the disease is
sometimes speedily cured. But when either the long standing of the
distemper, or some other cause, renders this total change
impracticable; at least the strength of the present set of ideas ought
to be diminished and destroyed by all possible means. The vain fears
of some are to be diverted, and their dismal thoughts dispelled. The
daring ferocity of others is to be curb'd; for which end it is often
necessary, to use hard words and threats. Likewise sudden frights,
which may give the mind a different commotion, from that which before
disturbed it, have been found to afford a temporary relief at least.
The ancients prescribed some corrections, such as bindings and
stripes.[125] And indeed it is sometimes necessary to bind those, who
are too unruly; to prevent their doing mischief to themselves or
others. But there is the less necessity for torments and stripes,
because all mad men are of such a cowardly disposition; that even the
most frantic and mischievous, after being once or twice tied,
surrender at discretion, and thence forward refrain from committing
any outrage, thro' fear of the punishment.
[125] _Vid. Celsus, Lib. iii. Cap. xviii._
As to the medical part, the gross humors of the body are to be
thinned, and the disorderly motion of the animal spirits is to be
calmed. For which end blood-lettings, emetics, cathartics, blisters,
and setons, also sometimes coolings of the head are to be employed. To
these the foetid gums are to be added, especially _assa foetida_,
_myrrh_, and _galbanum_. And _camphire_ has been frequently found
serviceable in excessive ferocity and want of sleep. But when the
disease is accompanied by a fever, nothing is more proper than nitre,
given in as large quantities as the stomach will bear. Lastly, the
patient is to be kept to a slender diet, and compelled to use
exercise. But in all evacuations, a certain degree of moderation ought
to be used, lest the madness be changed into a contrary disease, which
the ancients termed _morbus cardaicus_,[126] that is, an excessive
weakness of body. In which case, the patient is so far exhausted, that
medicines are of no avail; but the miserable dejected man drags the
remains of life, alass! generally too long.
[126] _Idem, Lib. iii. Cap. xix._