The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-20

striking illustration Of tle fate which genius Of.
ten ercoun efs when il lets down its bright lamp
into the deep and noisome we'll of human stupid
: lty. The man who is ahead of his age, is often
set down as mad Calico, Columbus, aud
other great men, were adorned with chains in
Stead OF Jewels, by the rational generation in
whlch they figured Ii is well that tyrants have
not tbe power to fetter the mind, as ell AS the
body, though In the melancholy case here named.
both mind and body fell victims to neglect and
ignorance.
From Satain's Magazine for September.
From private memoirs of the French con,t wa
had that in l64l an English nobleman. Edward
Somerset, Marquis OF Worcester, being in psri.
was accompanied by the ceebrted Marion De
lorme, While visiting the various places of cu,i
oslty and Interest in that great metropolis To
the correspondence Of that lady history is indebt
ed for the only authentic account of the inter-
view with DE Caus, from whom the MARQUIS of
Worcester learned the theory Of steam power.
aud afterwards published it, in 1868, as + is own
discovery, III a work entitled "A Century of
! Inventions"
The following translation Of letter from Ma
ron Delorme to the Marquis de Cnq Mars con-
talns very explicit account of the interview be-
tween DE Caus and Worcester, and furnishes
the text from which Lecurieux designed his pic
| ture:
FEBRUARY 3, 1911.
"MY DEAR D'ErFAT While you forget me
at Narbonne, and are giving Yourself up to the
pleasures of the court and the Joy of meeting
Monsieur the Cardinal, /, following your wish
do the honors of Paris to your English lord the
Marquis OF Worcester, and lead him, or rather
he leads me, from one object Of curiosity to
another, choosing always the saddest and most
serious, and fixing his large blue eyes on those
he questions as it to penetrate their inmost
Thoughts To speak further of him. he il never
contented with the explanations given, and never
regards objects in the same light with those who
show them to him; for instance, a visit that we
made together to the Bicetre, vi here he pretends
to have discovered man of genius in lunatic
II TINS maniac had not been raging mad, verify
believe the Marquis would have demanded his
liberty, and taken him to London, there to hear
his follies from morning till night. AS we
crossed the lunatic quarters and |, more dead
than alive with fear, leaned on my companion
an ugly face showed itself behind great bars and
commenced crying in broken voice, Il am mol
mad D,.Ue made discovery ohich piU en-.
rich any country that a0iA put ii in operation
"Ah! said he, Struggling his shoulders, some
thing very simple, and what you could never guess
1t is the employment of the vapor of boiling
water
81 commenced laughing
THIS man. continued he, is named Salo.
mon de Caus He came from Normandy four
years since to present to the mott e of the King
treatise on the marvellous effect that can he
obtained by his invention that is, by steam to
prope machines, drive carriages and do. for
aught know, thousand other miracles. The
Cardinal dismissed the mailman without an au
dleBce; but Solomon de Caus, instead of being
discouraged, commenced folio wing Monsigneur
the Cardinal everywhere, until he, tired Of find
ing him at his heels and imporluned by his fol-
lies, ordered him to be shut up in the Bicetre.
where, as you have heard, he cries to eyerv
stranger that he is not mad, and that he has made
a wonderful discovery. He has even written
to prove this book which have here
My Lord Worcester, who had been all atten-
ton, demanded the book, and, after having read
some pages in it, said, This man is not mad and
in my country, instead of imprsoning him, they
would have heaped riches and honor upon him:
lead me to him.
They did SO but he returned sad and PEN
sve.
90 lie is now, in truth, crazy, said he; mis-
fortune and captivity have deprived him of
reason you have made him mad and when Won
threw him into that CELL you shut up the greatest
geuius of the agep
After this we left; and since that time the
Marquis has continually spoken of Solomon de
Caus
Farewell, my beloved and faithful Henry;
return soon, and in the happiness you now en-
Joy let there be still some love left for your own
MARION DELoRME."
The authenticity of this letter is beyond
doubt, and it was found among the effects of
Henri Golfer de Ruge d'Efiat, Marquis de
Cling Mars who, for suspected court intrigues,
was beheaded at Lyons in I642, only one wear
alter the date of this interesting letter from the
celebrated woman to whom it was said he had
been secretly married.