The Psychology of Monomaniacal Societies and Literature

I>~ a previous essay we gave a cursory consideration to a wide-spread popular delusion, which had taken the form of demonology and divination, or "the black art." We then thought it probable that, as "one fire puts out another burning," and similia similibus curantur, this more recent absurdity would extinguish, or at least counteract, the follies of mesmerism. In this idea we were mistaken; for, just as a monomaniac converts all current ideas into food for the delusive ideas which actuate him, and finds their corroboration in facts as widely apart as possible, so the large group of monomaniacal visionaries convert everything analogous to their purpose, and derive fresh impulses from follies and delusions greater (if that be possible) than their own. Thus we find that homoeopathy and hydropathy, like two drunken strollers, mutually support each other; and thus, too, mesmerism finds in modern necromancy, and in every delusion of sorcery and magic, current in all ages and amongst all peoples, the strongest proof of the