And I beg you not to accept as diagnoses what are sheer speculations. Acknowledgments The first drafts of these essays appeared in the _Australasian Medical Journal_, _The Sydney Bulletin_, the Australian _Home, Art in Australia_, and the Australian _Forum_. They have nearly all been considerably modified with the growth of knowledge and frequent rewriting. I have to thank Miss Kibble, of the New South Wales Public Library, for assisting me immensely in hunting up many authorities from whom I quote. Without her help this book could never have been written. Glossary _Imperative idea_: An idea that, however malapropos it may be, keeps mounting into consciousness. _Obsession_: An imperative idea that compels appropriate action. _Phobias_: Unconscious fears, often acquired in early infancy, which may ruin a man’s whole life for him. There are many different kinds of “phobia” of which syphilophobia is probably the most common. These three are all signs of: _Psychasthenia_: A weird half-sister of neurasthenia, generally the result of heredity, combined with abnormal education in early youth. In the psychasthenic state the patient may be subject to all manner of imperative ideas, obsessions and phobias. Sometimes he stammers, sometimes he is compelled by his “unconscious” to jerk his limbs about in quaint antics; sometimes he is afflicted with awful doubts and scruples.[1] All the other medical terms are, I think, explained in the text as they arise. Contents PAGE DR. JOHNSON 17 KING HENRY THE SAINT 40 _The Tragedy of the Tudors_: (_a_) KING HENRY VIII 50 (_b_) EDWARD VI 76 (_c_) MARY TUDOR 86 (_d_) QUEEN ELIZABETH 93 IVAN THE TERRIBLE 103 LUTHER’S DEVIL 117 HENRY FIELDING 128 KING JAMES I 136 KING CHARLES I 143 KING CHARLES II, CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA AND NELL GWYNN 148 HENRI QUATRE AND MARGUERITE DE VALOIS 163 FREDERICK THE GREAT 189 THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE 209 SOME EPIDEMICS OF SOCIAL IMPORTANCE 222 F. W. NIETZSCHE 247 ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 255 BARUCH SPINOZA 269 Mere Mortals Dr. Johnson