This picture, however, must be only regarded as displaying the ordinary occurrences which precede the attack; its approaches are sometimes distinguished by a very different train of symptoms; the late _Dr. John Monro_[525] has remarked that “high spirits, as they are generally termed, are the first symptoms of this kind of disorder; these excite a man to take a larger quantity of wine than usual; and the person thus affected, from being abstemious, reserved, and modest, shall become quite the contrary; drink freely, talk boldly, obscenely, swear, sit up till midnight, sleep little, rise suddenly from bed, go out a hunting, return again immediately, set all his servants to work, and employ five times the number that is necessary; in short, every thing he says or does betrays the most violent agitation of mind, which it is not in his power to correct; and yet, in the midst of all this hurry, he will not misplace one word, or give the least reason for any one to think he _imagines_ things to exist that really do not, or that they appear to him different from what they do to other people. They who see him but seldom, admire his vivacity, are pleased with his sallies of wit, and the sagacity of his remarks; nay, his own family are with difficulty persuaded to take proper care of him, until it becomes absolutely necessary, from the apparent ruin of his health and fortune.” The patient under the influence of the depressing passions will exhibit a train of symptoms altogether different; the countenance wears an anxious and gloomy aspect, he is little disposed to speak, he retires from the company of those with whom he formerly associated, secludes himself in obscure places, or lies in bed the greater part of his time; frequently he will keep his eyes fixed on some object for hours together, or continue them an equal time ‘bent on vacuity;’ he next becomes fearful, and conceives a thousand fancies, often recurs to some immoral act which he has committed, or imagines himself guilty of crimes which he never perpetrated; believes that God has abandoned him, and with trembling awaits his punishment;[526] frequently he becomes desperate and endeavours by his own hands to terminate an existence which appears to be an afflicting and hateful incumbrance.[527] The approaches of Insanity, are, however, not always slow and progressive: the unhappy victim is sometimes seized without any warning, and where crimes have been perpetrated under such circumstances, it becomes extremely embarrassing both to the judgment of the physician and to the decision of the court; each case, however, must rest upon its own particular merits duly to be weighed and considered both by the judge and jury, lest, to use the expressions of _Sir Matthew Hale_, “there be on the one side a kind of inhumanity towards the defects of human nature, or, on the other side too great an indulgence given to great crimes.”