"It may result from our profession, that the mind has these fits of morbid activity, as if to revenge itself for seasons of neglect."
In the March 1853 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border, the narrating Captain of U. S. Dragoons admits to having experienced mental "fits of morbid activity." The Captain thinks of these passing "fits" as vengeful reactions of "the mind" to the dullness of military life and routines. The whole sentence quoted above was deleted in revision. No reference to "these fits" or morbid states of "the mind" occur in the book version, Scenes and Adventures in the Army (Philadelphia, 1857).
Deleted expressions "these fits"; "the mind" and "morbid" states (activity/effect) all occur in the magazine and book versions of Melville's tale, "Benito Cereno":
Melville's Benito Cereno, October 1855 Putnam's Magazine:
"His mind wanders. He was thinking of the plague that followed the gales," plaintively sighed the servant; "my poor, poor master!" wringing one hand, and with the other wiping the mouth. "But be patient, Señor," again turning to Captain Delano, "these fits do not last long; master will soon be himself." -- also The Piazza Tales (New York, 1856) page 132.
Benito Cereno, November 1855 Putnam's Magazine:
"Well, well; these long calms have a morbid effect on the mind, I've often heard, though I never believed it before."
