Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/105

90 From which it appears that the all-observing eye of the poet had noted the custom of the world to conceal the occurrence of insanity within the family circle, a custom

which still prevails, and from which much evil is wrought. To keep secret the existence of this dreaded malady, the relatives of an insane person oftentimes postpone all effectual treat

ment until the time of its usefulness is past; and they forego measures of security until some terrible calamity results.

Accepting the ignorant and wicked opinion that disease of the brain is disgraceful, they give grounds to others for holding this opinion, by the sacrifices they are willing to make,

that the existence of insanity in the family may be concealed. They not only sacrifice to this the safety of the public, but that of the patient himself with his present comfort and the probable means of restoration. From motives variously compounded of selfishness and ignorance, they ignore the two great facts in the treatment of insanity that it must be early, and that it must be conducted in scenes remote from those influences in

which it has its origin.

Under a real or assumed regard for

the feelings of the unhappy patients they retain them at homes which may once have been happy, but which now

have become places of moral torture, where every look in flicts a wound, every word probes a sore. When the patient

is removed to fresh scenes, and to that skilfully arranged repose of the excited mental functions, which is provided by judicious treatment, the misery inflicted by the disease abates, even as the anguish of a broken limb is allayed by simple rest and well-arranged position. If all asylums for the educated and the wealthy were what they ought to be, or even what asylums for the poor actually are, the detention of the insane, amidst the moral miseries of home, would be utterly inexcu

sable. At present it has the excuse of prejudice, and of sus picion not without some foundation in fact. In the following scene with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and