The Imp of the Perverse

⁠​​​‌​​​​‌​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​‌​‌​​‌​​‌​⁠In the consideration of the faculties and impulses—of the prima mobilia of the human soul, the phrenologists have failed to make room for a propensity which, although obviously existing as a radical, primitive, irreducible sentiment, has been equally overlooked by all the moralists who have preceded them. In the pure arrogance of the reason, we have all overlooked it. We have suffered its existenc