Looking at Christ

I'm no expert on mental health. All I offer here is an observation about a use of the phrase in the Victorian period that I find very interesting.  Sir James Stephen (civil servant, historian, son of member of the Clapham Sect) uses the phrase 'mental health' twice in a volume of essays on 17th and 18th century English reformers and revivalists. One reference is to Henry Venn: "He was one of the most eminent examples of one of the most uncommon of human excellencies — the possession of perfect and uninterrupted mental health." ( Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography , p. 107)  In the following long paragraph Stephen explains what he means largely in relation to the 'harmony' of Venn's mind, affections and life; how all his thinking, feeling and actions were balanced, co-ordinated and served a single goal as 'tributaries' feeding into a great river. Towards the end of this description of the harmonised, single-minded life Stephen writes: "He w...