All authors who have treated this subject appear to agree respecting the difficulty of curing religious madness. The infrequent recoveries in this species of insanity, have caused thinking persons to suppose, that this disorder is little under the dominion of the medical practitioner; and, that restoration to reason in all cases is more the effect of accident, or of circumstances not "dreamt of in our philosophy," than the result of observation, skill, and experience. The idea that RELIGION; that which fastens us to the duties of this life; that which expounds the laws of God and of his creation to the ignorant; that which administers consolation to the afflicted; that which regulates man's conduct towards his fellow creatures, to exercise charity among them, and, from such benevolence, to purchase happiness to himself: to believe, that the cultivation of such exalted sentiments would decoy a human being into madness, is a foolish and impious supposition. "Thou, fair Religion, wast design'd, Duteous daughter of the skies, To warm and chear the human mind, To make men happy, good, and wise; To point, where sits in love array'd, Attentive to each suppliant call, The God of universal aid, The God, the Father of us all. "First shewn by Thee, thus glow'd the gracious scene, 'Til Superstition, fiend of woe, Bad doubts to rise and tears to flow, And spread deep shades our view and heaven between." _Penrose._ It is therefore sinful to accuse RELIGION, which preserves the dignity and integrity of our intellectual faculty, with being the cause of its derangement. The mind becomes refreshed and corroborated by a fair and active exercise of its powers directed to proper objects; but when an anxious curiosity leads us to unveil that which must ever be shrouded from our view, the despair, which always attends those impotent researches, will necessarily reduce us to the most calamitous state.