THE

PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL,

No. XLVII.

ARTICLE I..

OBSERVATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FANATICISM; illustrated by a Comparison of the Belief and Conduct of noted Religious Enthusiasts with those of Patients in the Montrose Lunatic Asylum. By W. A. F. BROWNE, Esq., Medical Superintendent of that Institution. (Continued from p. 545.)

ESQUIROL, in the benevolent spirit which marks all his opinions, says of the convulsions of Saint Medard, "Happily this is the last scene of the kind which will afflict the human race." So long as fanaticism is recognised as worthy of respect and of cultivation, such an idea can be nothing more than the dream or desire of a sanguine heart. How profoundly and permanently affected the human mind may become by long-continued religious impressions, is well shewn in the events called "The Conversions of Cambuslang." A devoutly zealous pastor, conscious of the gross ignorance and crime by which his labours were impeded, and calculating that his efforts, to be successful, must be proportioned to the amount of the obstacles, consecrated every thought and energy to the task. The votaries of olden times used, emblematically, to leave their ordinary garments upon the steps of the altar. He, in truth, left every secular feeling, as well as every secular view of the constitution of the human mind, on the threshold of his church. For a whole year he preached on the doctrine of regeneration, attract

• We have much pleasure in laying this article before our readers, because it treats of a very important subject, eminently in need of elucidation, to which the writer has long devoted his thoughts, and which he has enjoyed favourable opportunities of investigating. Medical men have so seldom reported their observations in this department of science, that we regard the contributions of Mr Browne as of very high value to the public. At the same time, it needs hardly be remarked, that, as the historical details introduced are varied and numerous, and the subjects little accessible to common observation, we are not to be considered as adopting implicitly either the statements or the opinions of the author.-EDITOR.

ing rather than fatiguing his hearers by the experiment. This was an appeal to the higher sentiments: Wonder was next enlisted in the cause. In order to demonstrate that the work he inculcated had commenced, he set apart the Sunday evenings to the public reading of missives and depositions, recording conversions which had followed the preaching of Whitefield in America. These were attended, and supposed to be attested, by great agitation of the muscular system, and pathetic ejaculations. Indeed, wherever these miraculous events have occurred-miraculous from their suddenness and the suspension of the moral law of gradual reformation-whether under the mild persuasions of Wesley, the impassioned eloquence of Whitefield, the ministrations of the Methodists of the present day, or the wild mysticism of Irving-they have always been accompanied by convulsive movements. Convulsion, indeed, is the grand characteristic of a sect holding this doctrine. The Shakers are probably better known to the humorist than to the philosopher; but their history is worthy of preservation, because they represent as a church-as a regularly organized religious community--the extreme opinions and mental condition which have signalised individuals or small bodies belonging to other churches, and living at various periods. The Jumpers and Shouters can only be regarded as branches from this parent stock.

The enthusiastic propagandist of Cambuslang created or stimulated the appetite he addressed. A desire was expressed for additional instruction, and a weekly lecture was the consequence. Fear for their spiritual safety seems now to have spread rapidly among his parishioners. At a more advanced period, three days in the week, and many hours of each day, were appropriated to a convention of what are styled fellowship meetings, where prayers were offered up for an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in their bounds as in other places abroad. Nothing was at first elicited by these spiritual exercises, although it is perfectly evident that something extraordinary was expected. At last, after a sort of expostulatory address to the Deity for fruits and confirmation of his mission, several persons "cried out publicly," and about fifty confessed to the pastor the strong conviction of guilt and fears of punishment under which they laboured. The pilgrims to Cambuslang now waxed numerous, and service was performed to the assembled multitude in the open air. The evidence of the conversions now assumed a more tangible form. All who were affected presented similar symptoms. They were suddenly alarmed by some impressive expression in the prayer or sermon-by some personal application. They then began to entertain dreadful apprehensions concerning the state of their souls, and cried out, in the

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most public and frightful manner, that they were enemies to God and despisers of Christ, that they heard the cries of the damned, &c. The external demonstrations of this state of conviction were agonising cries, violent agitations of body, clasping the hands and beating the breast, shaking and trembling, faintings and convulsions, and sometimes excessive bleeding at the nose. On such incontestable marks appearing, their spiritual adviser urged those affected not to stifle their convictions, but to encourage them; and as the most effectual method of enabling them to do so, he retired with them and spent the greater part of the following night in exhortation. These neophytes were on the next day led out with napkins bound round their heads, and placed before the tent "weeping and crying aloud," until the worship was concluded. The space of time which generally elapsed between the two stages of the process, between their conviction and conversion, was some days-occasionally only a few hours; at other times the latter was accomplished as suddenly as the former. They were raised," says their historian, "from the lowest depths of sorrow and distress to the highest pitch of joy and happiness." One of the effects of these delightful impressions, was to prompt them to pray and exhort publicly, or to sing particular psalms, which they imagined God had commanded them to sing. While in the process of transition—that is, between their conviction and conversionmany had no appetite for food, or inclination to sleep; and all complained of the severity of their sufferings, which were stated by mothers to exceed the pangs of parturition. The extraordinary nature of these proceedings soon obtained for them sufficient publicity, which now affords the greatest guarantee for the authenticity of the accounts that have reached us. The season of grace continued for about six months, during which it is affirmed by the clergyman that four hundred were awakened, amongst whom no instance of backsliding occurred. The outward signs ceased, but the inward and substantial piety remained. The parish, from a scene of debauchery, strife, litigation, and drunkenness, became exemplary for peace, decorum, and sobriety; and those converts who had been most violent in their displays of penitence and zeal, preserved a character for uprightness and industry, and "behaved in a good measure"-so the historian expresses his opinion-" as became the Gospel." Many, however, it is added, "fell away, and turned as bad or worse than they were before."*

We grant that the facts took place as represented; we be

Account of the parish of Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, by the Rev. Dr James Meek, minister of the parish; in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. v. pp. 267–274. The events alluded to occurred in the year 1742; the date of the first demonstration was 18th February,

lieve that there was active and strenuous teaching, followed first, by violent agitation of the body, and secondly, by a moral conversion. We possess evidence that many individuals of depraved and dissolute lives heard that preaching, were convulsed, and afterwards became virtuous and upright members of society. It is admitted that the evidence is as strong for the conversion as for the convulsion. But we deny most explicitly that a shadow of a proof exists, that the convulsion was an indication of the conversion-a manifest sign that the Holy Spirit was working an instantaneous regeneration; or that it stood in any other relation to the moral change than what nervous or muscular disturbance does to any strong impression, whether physical or moral, fear or joy, despair or madness. Dr Erskine, and his biographer Sir Henry Moncreiff, adopted this view of these singular events; indeed, the whole of the latter's reasoning on the subject is clear, candid, and conclusive.* Orthodox authority for these observations has been sought for, because an eminent clergyman of the church within whose pale the conversions were effected, has within a few months expressed himself thus: "Let us trust and pray that the days of Cambuslang and Kilsyth may return," &c.

We are aware that at the time a bitter controversy arose respecting the nature of these revivals; one party proclaiming them proofs of heavenly interference, while another denounced them as evidence of demoniac possession. With these combatants we do not mean to mingle. The accuracy of the facts has not been, and cannot be impugned; nor can it be denied that many of the individuals so singularly affected became better and wiser men, justifying by their subsequent deportment the supposition that they were converted. We have stated our inability to perceive any necessary connexion between the agitation of the muscles and the change going forward in the mind; but of the three causes by which this change might have been effectuated-the mere moral conviction produced by the instruction of spiritual guides, the impressions succeeding longcontinued moral and physical excitement, and the operation of a higher influence-it is not our province to pronounce an opinion. We receive and treat the facts as they have been related even by those hostile to the interpretations assigned. We find a large body of men agitated by peculiar convulsive movements, holding the belief that they are regenerated by the direct agency of divine power, and acting decorously in consequence of this belief. We observe that these converts not merely were regarded as sane, but enjoyed a high character for sanctity, and

Account of the Life and Writings of John Erskine, D. D., by Sir Henry Moncreiff Wellwood, pp. 115, 124.

+ Report of a Meeting of the Glasgow Association for promoting the interests of the Church of Scotland, in The Scottish Guardian, Feb. 20. 1835.

are even now pointed out as models for the imitation of their unworthy descendants:* the charter of their prescriptive piety is sealed with the authority of some of the hierarchs of the church to which they belonged. We observe all this, and at the same time the truth is obtruded upon us, that other individuals, conducting themselves in a similar manner, and preferring similar claims, by a slight difference of circumstance, have been expelled from society as insensate outcasts, and condemned to continue their ecstatic experiences, or persevere in their conversion, within the walls of a madhouse. The following is an example:

CASE VI.-J. S. ET. 69.

Predominating organs.-Wonder, Ideality, Cautiousness, Conscientiousness, Language, and Intellectual organs generally.

Deficient organ.-Self-Esteem.

This patient, who is a female, has long been much respected in her native village, and is an especial favourite of the proprietor, as a sensible, shrewd, and industrious person. She supports herself by keeping a sort of dame's-school. In common with the whole of her family, she is reputed as rigidly pious and exemplary in the performance of her religious duties. They generally travel eight miles every Sunday, in order to attend a particular clergyman. During childhood she had been exposed to some source of terror, which, whether real or imaginary, had affected her mind so powerfully that her life is a succession of alarms. Her Cautiousness is preternaturally excitable. The jar of a door acts like a shock of galvanism, and a lamp in a passage would be as if the spear of Ithuriel flashed on her eye. Moral hobgoblins are equally frightful. To this constitutional tendency her illness is to be traced. Probably from some previously existing nervous irritation, the philippics of her pastor produced an unusual impression; they seemed directed against her and her besetting sins. They exposed to her view all the enormous transgressions of which she knew that she had been guilty, and many of whose very existence she was ignorant. She was fascinated; the torture was regularly applied, but still she returned to be racked and reviled anew. Her awakening, as she terms her condition, was complete. The serene sleep of a life of industry and innocence was broken. These, it now appeared to her, were the dreams of a cold and callous spirit. She was roused to the realities of her latitudinarianism. It was clear that the whole of her life had been passed in negligence of the feelings by which she was now agitated, and she consequently concluded that long period to be a blank-a blot in her course. She must

*Nos. I., II., III, and IV. of a series of pamphlets, entitled "Revivals of Religion." Glasgow, 1835.