" He was overpowered,
however, by the solicitations of his friend and the other persons of
the party (amongst whom were several ladies); and they went in a
body to Moorfields.
Their conductor led them first to the dismal mansions of those who
are in the most horrid state of incurable madness. The clanking of
chains, the wildness of their cries, and the imprecations which some
of them uttered, formed a scene inexpressibly shocking. Harley and
his companions, especially the female part of them, begged their
guide to return; he seemed surprised at their uneasiness, and was
with difficulty prevailed on to leave that part of the house without
showing them some others: who, as he expressed it in the phrase of
those that keep wild beasts for show, were much better worth seeing
than any they had passed, being ten times more fierce and
unmanageable.
He led them next to that quarter where those reside who, as they are
not dangerous to themselves or others, enjoy a certain degree of
freedom, according to the state of their distemper.
Harley had fallen behind his companions, looking at a man who was
making pendulums with bits of thread and little balls of clay. He
had delineated a segment of a circle on the wall with chalk, and
marked their different vibrations by intersecting it with cross
lines.
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