performance of a frightful deed, opposed alike to his better judgment
and his ordinary desires.

"As to _pyromania_, some years ago I knew a laboring man in a country
village, who, whenever he had had a few glasses of ale at the
public-house, would chuckle with delight at the thought of firing
certain gentlemen's stacks. Yet, when his brain was free from the
poison, a quieter, better-disposed man could not be. Unfortunately, he
became addicted to habits of intoxication; and, one night, under
alcoholic excitement, fired some stacks belonging to his employers, for
which, he was sentenced for fifteen years to a penal settlement, where
his brain would never again be alcoholically excited."


KLEPTOMANIA.

"Next, I will give an example of _kleptomania_. I knew, many years ago,
a very clever, industrious and talented young man, who told me that
whenever he had been drinking, he could hardly withstand, the temptation
of stealing anything that came in his way; but that these feelings never
troubled him at other times. One afternoon, after he had been indulging
with his fellow-workmen in drink, his will, unfortunately, was
overpowered, and he took from the mansion where he was working some
articles of worth, for which he was accused, and afterwards sentenced to
a term of imprisonment. When set at liberty he had the good fortune to
be placed among some kind-hearted persons, vulgarly called
_teetotallers_; and, from conscientious motives, signed the PLEDGE, now
above twenty years ago. From that time to the present moment he has
never experienced the overmastering desire which so often beset him in
his drinking days--to take that which was not his own. Moreover, no