The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1866-12-21
Insani.y. NoaabLe eases fr0n Hist3ry.

446uutbJ Is - DlA - AitClF4LaA 6 siA- NV
much olderswe know not. A recent French
writer has devoted book to demonstrate
that the demon of Socrates was nelhing else
than state of ecstaeys iaad Intermittent in
sanity, which came over the philosopher
now and then, and seAiAed to him an ESQ
teric monitor and guide. Some of the ear
liest theologians of the Christian church, as
well as tie mejority Of the hiefarchs there
of, have been charged with insanity
George Rex, Jacob Behmen, Emmanuel
syedeBborg, John. Bunyan, Ann Lee, and
other founders Of seets and pietists, too
numerous to mention, had clearly develop
ed traces of insanity. Even the rugged
Luther. alsn he threw his inkstsnd at the
devil, must have had at least a passing ln-
macy upoe him. Among philosophers
Kant is tie most eminent name known to
have been. oyertskenl by madness. This.
occurred IN his latter years, and there has
lately been discovered in Germany man
useript volume which he -comPOsed during.
that peElea.E baef 10 s.ra oss slss r5a ssh, 2
Leland, the celebrated English antiquary
was an enthusiast, who exhausted the finer
faculties Of his mir d 10 prodigiOus .nOcturn-
al labor5g until he vas seized, at the age Of
40, with frenzy and his penetrating intel
lect became a melancholy ruin. b @
Nathaniel Lee, a dramatist Of the 17th
century. whose com positions were praised
by Addison, and who is remembered on
'ly Hbysth at imisquoted line, Of his Alexander
the Great When Creeks joined Greeks.
then was Che tug Of war, . was so extraFa'
CANT madman that he had to be incareera-
ted in bedlam at the age of thirty. One
evening, while composing a drama in his
cell cloud passing across the moon, by
whose light he wrote, the insane author
suddenly cried out, owe, snuff the moon!"
Christopher Stuart. the able translator of
Horace. who won brilliant houors at Cam
bridge, was soon after attacked by insanity,
and shut up IN q lunatic asylum in l754,
Here, although deprived of pen, ink and
paper, he composed aPoem1of hundred
stanzass..i ia honor Of King David, which he
wrote with a key ousthe walls ef his cham
Der. - u -45g
In. 1923 curious work on the .Anato-
my of Language appeared at Florence
lis object was to prove that apes possessed
the power Of speech, but carefully conceal
ed the gift from the human1race. This
work was written by one Joseph Bernardo.
awhile an inmate Of a lunatic asylum. He
asserted that in the.eariy additions Of Marco
Polorit had beea well established. that apes
had the faculty Of singing, and of speech.
A Jesuit named Cremoni wrote refuta
tion, maintaining that this doctrine was con-
trary to Che. teachings Of the Scripthfe, and
consequently could not be true.
One Of the most remarkable Of literary
lunatics was John Stewart, commonly Known
as Waking, Ste8art,,f who died in Lon
don 10 1929. Attacked early in. life by the
mania Of travelling, be. soon traversed, on
foot, great portion of the globe. He then
began to write books, of which he printed
upwards Of twenty at his own expense. and
distributed them eau 'iously among Ills
friends, SO that they have now become rare.
They were devoted chiefly to what he calls
''Tbe Polarization Of Moral Truth" He
was haunted with the notion that the kings
Of the earlhzwould one day combine o7des-
troy his wFilings,Tand SO he begged those
who received the precious deposits to en-
velope them carefully and bury them six or
eight feet under grOAnds being careful 70
disclose only upon their death bed, and un-
der a pledge Of secrecy, the spot where
they were entcmbed.
John Clare, known as "The Mad Poet. -
who published his poems at London in '25,
met with such neglect that reason deserted
him His insanity, however, was Of a mild
character, and his memory so tenacious. as
to assimilate every thing he had ever once
heard or read.
| A Pennsylvania lawyer named .BIiInan.
excited great attention few years ago by
the singular merit of his literary essays,
descriptive oFL scenery, &c, and written in
the lucid interVals of an insanity, from
which be was never free more than a few
hours together,
We have not the space to do more than
mention tas Madness Of Tesso, who COM
posed his eloquent and impassioned verses
during paroxysms of insanity; of Lueretius'
the Roman poet, who wrote much Of his
immortal poem, "De Rerum Natura, = when
suffeFiag rom an attack .of mental absrEa-
tion; ;sof Dean Swift, VINO predicted. that he
should ''die at thstopsR like blasted tree
aud fal6lled the pfoRheey by falling. into
complete idiooy ip his closing years; OF the
poet, Collins, whose sensitive and finely
orgahizsd brain sunk iatoA despairing
madness from the aHOFIass neglect Of. .hil
genins; Of Isensssaus who was f'Ep inspired
madmah'' through the greater part Of bis
long literary casseFs and Of Cowper. whose