The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

THE CADMEAN MADNESS. THE BRIDGE OF CLOUD. THE ELECTRIC GIRL OF LA PERRIRE. LITERARY LIFE IN PARIS. THE MASKERS. CULLET. WHAT WILL BECOME OF THEM? FORGOTTEN. WET-WEATHER WORK. REGULAR AND VOLUNTEER OFFICERS. THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF INANIMATE THINGS. WHAT SHALL WE HAVE FOR DINNER? BEFORE VICKSBURG. OUR VISIT TO RICHMOND. REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS An old English divine fancied that all the world might go mad and nobody know it. The conception suggests a query whether the standard of sanity, as of fashions and prices, be not a purely artificial one, an accident of convention, a law of society, an arbitrary institute, and therefore a possible mistake. A sage and a maniac each thinks the other mad. The decision is a matter of majorities. Should a whole community become insane, it would nevertheless vote itself wise; if the craze of Bedlam were uniform, its inmates could not distinguish it from a Pantheon; and though all human history seemed to the gods only as a continuous series of medival processions des sots et des nes, yet the topsy-turvy intellect of the world would ever worship folly in the name of wisdom. Arts and sciences, ideas and institutions, laws and learning would still abound, transmogrified to suit the reigning madness. And as statistics reveal the late gradual and general increase of insanity, it becomes a provident people to consider what may be the ultimate results, if this increase should happen never to be checked. And if sanity be, indeed, a glory which we might all lose unawares, we may well betake ourselves to very solemn reflection as to whether we are, at the present moment, in our wits and senses, or not. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 20350
Author: Various
Release Date: Jan 13, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English