Other related topics at:
All In Your Mind
497. Guilt Complexes; Melancholy;
Superstitions
"No disease of the imagination ... is so difficult of cure as
that which is complicated with the dread of guilt: fancy and
conscience then act interchangeably upon us, and so often shift
their places that the illusions of one are not distinguished from
the dictates of the other. If fancy presents images not moral or
religious, the mind drives them away when they give it pain; but
when melancholic notions take the form of duty, they lay hold on
the faculties without opposition, because we are afraid to
exclude or banish them. For this reason the superstitious are
often melancholy, and the melancholy almost always
superstitious."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
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