2 Metaphors for distempers

The degree of this distemper will be in proportion to the prevalence of imagination over reason, and, according to this proportion, amount to more or less of the whimsical; but when reason shall become, as it were, extinct, and imagination govern alone, then the distemper will be madness under the wildest and most fantastic modes.

This distemper is the scourge of talent,of artists, inventors, and philosophers.

2 Metaphors for  distempers