Shakespeare so clearly held up the mirror to nature that every special student finds his specialty recognized by the great dramatist. We do not for a moment suppose that Shakespeare made a prolonged study of the insane or of the mental defects associated with senility, yet when he came to portray a weak-minded old man his observation in no way misled him, and we have in his Lear one of the most masterly descriptions of a demented king that any literature, whether special or general, can provide.