and are in fact the superficial symptoms of some deep-seated
weakness of nerve, while their very absurdity, and the fact that
the mind cannot throw them off, only proves how strong they are.
They are in fact signs of some profound uneasiness of mind; and the
rational brain of such people, casting about for some reason to
explain the fear with which they are haunted, fixes on some detail
which is not worthy of serious notice. It is of course a species of
local insanity and monomania, but it does not imply any general
obscuration of faculties at all. Some of the most intellectual
people are most at the mercy of such trials, and indeed they are
rather characteristic of men and women whose brain is apt to work
at high pressure. One recollects in the life of Shelley, how he
used to be haunted by these insupportable fears. He was at one time
persuaded that he had contracted leprosy, and he used to disconcert
his acquaintances by examining solicitously their wrists and necks
to see if he could detect symptoms of the same disease.

There is very little doubt that as medical knowledge progresses we
shall know more about the cause of such hallucinations. To call
them unreal is mere stupidity. Sensible people who suffer from them
are often perfectly well aware of their unreality, and are
profoundly humiliated by them. They are some disease or weakness of
the imaginative faculty; and a friend of mine who suffered from
such things told me that it was extraordinary to him to perceive
the incredible ingenuity with which his brain under such
circumstances used to find confirmation for his fears from all
sorts of trivial incidents which at other times passed quite
unnoticed. It is generally quite useless to think of removing the
fear by combating the particular fancy; the affected centre,
whatever it is, only turns feverishly to some other similar