The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-22
DIseevsry Of stsan Pswsr 3 Be1I...

II Inc ionowing fragment, II true, exhibits
striking illustration Of the fate which genius Of
ten ercoun ers when it let's down its bright iamy
into the deep and noisome well Of human stupid
ity. The man who is ahead of his age is offer
set down as mad. Calico, Columbus, AND
other great men, were adorned with chains, in
stead of jewels, by the rational generation in
which they figured. 1t is well that tyrants have
not the power to fetter the mind, as we'll as the
body, though in the melancholy case here named
both mind and body fell victims to neglect and
| ignorance.
From Sartain's Magazine for September.
From private memoirs of the French court we
ma that in l64l an English nobleman, Edward
Somerset, Marquis Of Worcester, being in Paris
was accompanied by the ceIebrted Marion De.
iorme, While visiting the various places of curl.
osity and interest in that great metropolis To
the correspondence Of that lady history ia indebt.
ed for the only authentic account of the intar.
view with De Caus, from whom the MARQUIS ~
Worcester learned the theory Of steam power.
and afterwards published it, in 1868, as 4 3 wn
discovery, in work entitled "a Century Of
Inventions"
| The following translation of letter from Ma.
rion Delorme to the Marquis de Cinq Mars, con.
tains very explicit account of the interview be-
tween De Caus and Worcester, and furnishes
the text from which Lecurieux designed his pic
| ture:
"FEBRUARY 8, l64I.
"MY DEAR D'EFFIAT:-While You forget me
at Narbonne, and are giving Yourself up to the
pleasures Of the court, and the joy of meeting
Monsieur the Cardinai !, 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
ne questions as if to penetrate their Utmost
thoughts. To speak further Of him, he is never
contented with the explanations given, and never
regards objects in the same light with those who
show them to him; for instance, visit that we
made together to the Bicetre, where he pretends
to have discovered a man of genius in lunatic |!
If this 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 not
mad hare made discovery Dhich piH en-
rich any country that DiH put IL in operation.
"'Ah! said he, Struggling his shoulders, some
thing very simple, and what you could never guess
it 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 tire King
treatise on the marvellous effect that can be
obtained by his invention; that is by steam to
propel machines, drive carriages, and do for
aught know, thousand other miracles. The
Cardinal dismissed the nadman without an an.
dence; but Solomon de Caus, instead Of being
discouraged, commenced following Monspneur
the Cardinal everywhere, until he, tired OF find
ing him at his heels, and importuned by his fol-
lies, ordered him to be shut up in the Bcetre,
where, rs you have heard, he cries 10 every
stranger that he is not mad, and that he has made
wonderful discovery. lie has even written
to prove this a 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 imprisoning him, they
would have heaped riches and honor upon him:
lead me to him.
They did SO; but he returned sad and PEN
sive.
- lie is now, in truth, crazy, said he mis-
fortune and captivity have deprived him of
reason; you have made him mad and when YOU
threw him into that cell, you SHIT up the greatest
geuins of the agey
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 on.
JOY let there be still some love left for your own
MARios DELoRME."
The authenticity Of this letter is beyond a
doubt, and il was found among the effects of
Henri Golfer de Ruge dEGaL Marquis de
Cling Mar, who, for suspected court inirigues,
was beheaded at Lyons in l642, only one year
after the date Of this interesting letter from the
celebrated woman to whom Il was said he had
been secretly married. ~