Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-05
From The New York Century
IRASCIBILITY OF GENIUS.
FROM THE FRENCH.

Feasibility is so marked characteristic of
the poets that it attracted the attention of the
ancients. But what they say of the poets is
equally applicable to all who cultivate sci
cnce and art exceptions to the rule are rare.
A kind of restless, sensitiveness, jealous and
impatient of contradiction, harnesses them in
cessantly; and this condition is aggravated
by the slightest causes, moral or physical,
and much more by contemPtuous chickering's,
and the silent or open assaults of remorseless
criticism. There is known to psychologists O
tendency in the functions to excessive excl
tation, which is indicated by the term orgdsm;
it is symptomatic of peculiar pathological
cases, but the highly nervous temperament is
particularly pre-disposed to it. Nervous sus-
ceptibility, and the tendency to self-love,
arise from the same common source. The
inflammable nature of this temperament
renders permanent, so to speak, the excessive
excitability of poets, painters, orators and
certain classes of savans. There are persons
whose nerves are so susceptible that every
thing wounds and irritates them. Their bodies
require to be constantly shielded from rough
usage, and their self-love demands perpetual
protection against rude assaults. Like in
fants, they can not dispense with steady
diet of caudle and coaxing. The moral ma
ture, as we perceive, can not escape the intiu-
ence of this inevitable temper, which, when
excessive, bears all the characteristics OF a
disease. In truth, the echo of the trumpet OF
fame is the most soothing balm for this ner-
vous irritation. The yoke OF tiattery is the
only one to which such proud heads and fiery
temperaments will submit, and even the
need of praise, when administered in strong
and repeated doses, must contain nought of
the bitter mixture of censure. In a bushet of
praises let there be grain of criticism, and
this latter ingredient will alone be tasted
Racine confessed as much.
All measured appreciation is q sort of cen
sure; all praise refused is set to the account of
unmerted suffering This is the thorn in the
laurel that wreaths the head of hero and poet.
This irascibility, which may very well
with goodness of heart, is manifest in various
degrees but it is always present in constitu-
tions in which the nervous temperament pre-
dominates. Indeed, when celebrity has been
already attained, there are those who are not
proof against it; there is no man of such a
temperament who would not willingly en-
gross the exclusive attention Of the public
Voltaire was jealous of the roue who was the
talk of the town. Napoleon, that colossus
of renown, disliked any allusion to Caesar In
official bulletins. He was even enraged al
the reputation of the sarcastic and witty
Geofroy The grave Boileau said to Freret
Young man, this thing called glory must bt
understood; l have always sought it, and
have never heard any one praised, not even {
shoemaker, without feeling a touch O
jealousy Can we wonder, after witnessing
such examples, at the restless lives Of such ai
are eager for fame? The sensibility o
Girodet was extreme. 1t was not from actua
suffering, but from the despair with which
criticism, even the most trivial, filled him
1t is said that his friends frequently snatched
from his hand the paintings he was about to
destroy, rendered worthless in his eyes BY
the foul ISLANDERS of some critic. And dit
ever painter exhibit countenance more thin
pale, and sickly, than Girodet?, lmpetuous
fanatical, Jealous, devoted to their faith an,
convictions, what tortures of hatred and env,
do such characters endured The story o
their enmities is but too plain proof of wha
they suffer.
The gall of the philosophers is not less bit
ter than that of the votaries of superstition
Was not the dagger that pierced Ramu
pointed by the envy of savans? Rober
Hook was the torment of Newton's life; tn
fame of Linnaus was the occasion of man,
a sleepless night for Button. Byron was OH
of patience with the magistrate who forgot t
give him his title Of Peer Of England; an
Morgagni, the anatomist, could not forgive
brother Of the profession, who had quote
from him without prehxing to his name til
address ilLustrissime. In one of his works o
medical instruction, IIaller cited vast nun
ber of authors worthy of reference. Th
presence or abseneei of one or more stars in
dicated the comparative worth of their seN
eral works. There is no telling, says distir
guished physician, how many authors WEI
amazed and irritated, that no stars were alike
to their names The celebrated anatomis
Nickel, who died in December, l833 expressl
forbade his body TO be opened, and the groun
of this prohibition probably was his lon
quarrel with the chief anatomist of the Un
versity, to whom belonged the right of il
specting anatomical subjects.