Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-07
INSANITY : NOTABLE CASES FROM
HISTORY.

Insanity is as old as literature, and how
much older we know not. A recent French
writer has devoted book TO demonstrate
that the demon Of Socrates was nothing else
than state Of ecstacy and intermittent in
sanity, which cameover the philosopher now
and then, and seemed 10 him an esoteric
monitor and guide. Some Of the earliest
theologians OF the Christian church, as well
rs a majority Of the h;erarchs thereof have
been charged with insanity. George Rex,
Jacob Behmen, Emmanuel Swedenborg,
John Bunyan, Ann Lee, and other founders
Of sects and pietists, too numerous to men
ton, had clearly developed traces o. insani-
~. Even the rugged Luther when ne threw
his inkstand at the devil, must have had at
least q passing lunacy upon him. Among
philosophers, Kant is the most eminent
name known TO have been overtaken by
madness. This occurred in his latter years,
and there has lately been discovered in Ger
many a manuscript volume which he COLI
posed during that period.
Lellnd, the celebrated English antiquary,
was All enthusiast, who exhausted the finer
faculties Of his mind in prodigious nocturn-
al lab0rs, until he was seized, at the age Of
40, with frenzy, and his penetrating intel
lect became melancholy ruin.
q
century, whose compositions are praised by
Addison, and who is now remembered only
by thai misquoted line Of his Alexander
the Great ~" When Greeks Joined Greeks
then was the tug Of war;" was so extraTa-
giant mailman that be had 10 be incarcera-
ted in bedlam at the age Of thirty. One
evening, while composing drama in his
cell, cloud passing across the moon, by
whose light he wrote, the insane author sud-
denly cried out, " Jove, snuff the moonl"
Christopher Smart, the able translator Of
Horace, who won brilliant honors at Cam
bridge, was soon after attacked by insanity,
and shut up in q lunatic asylum in 1854
Here, although deprived Of pen ink and
paper, be composed poem Of hundred
stanzss, in honor Of King David, which he
wrote with key on the walls Of his chamber.
In 1923 a curious work on "The Anato-
my Of Language" appeared at Florence.
LIS object was 10 prove that apes possessed
the power Of speech, but carefully concealed
the gifi from the human race. The work
was written by one Joseph Bernardo, awhile
an inmate Of a lunatie asylum. lie asserted
that in the early editions Of Marco Polo il
had been well established that apes had the
faculty of singing, and Of speech.
A Jesuit named Cremoni wrote a refuta-
ton, maintaining that this doctrine was con-
trary 10 the teachings Of the Scripture, and
consequently could not be true.
One Of the most remarkable Of literary.
lunatics was John Stewart, commonly known
as " Walking Stewart" who died in Lon
don in 1922. Attacked early in life by the
mania Of travelling, he soon trayersed, on
foot, great portion Of the globe. He then
hogan 10 write books, Of which he printed
upwards Of twenty it his own expense, which
he distributed cautiously among mis- friends,
10 that they have now become rare. They
were chiefly devoted TO what he calls "The
Polarization of Moral Truth" He was
haunted with the notion that the kings Of
tho earth would one day combine TO destroy
his writings, and 50 he begged those who re-
ceived the precious deposits 10 enyelop them
carefully and bury them six or eight feet
under ground, being car ,ful 20 disclose only
upon their death-bed, and under pledge Of
secrecy, the spot where they were entombed.
john Clare, known as "The Mad Poet"
who Published his poems at London in 1925,
met with such neglect that reason deserted
him. His insanity, however, was of a mild
and tranquil description, and his memory so
tenacious that itaboBlutely assimilated every
thing he had ever once heard or read.
A Pennsylvania lawyer named Milman,
excited great attention few years ago by
by the singular melit of his literary essays,
descriptive Of scenery &c, and written in the
lucid intervals Of an insanity, from which
he was never free more than few hours
together.
We have no room remaining 10 do more
than mention the madness of Tasso, who
composed his eloquent and impassioned
verses during paroxysms of insanity; of
Lucretius, the Roman poet who wrote much
of his immortal poem, De Reuaa Ndtura,
when suffering from an attack Of mental
alteration; Of Dean Swift, who predicted
that he should Idle at the top" like a blast
ed tree, and fulfilled the prophecy by fall
ling into complete idiocy in his closing
years; of the poet, Collins, whose sensitive
and finely-organized brain sunk into des-
pairing madness from the worlds neglect of
his genius; of Rousseau, who was Fan in
spired madman" through the greater part
of his long literary career; and of Cowper,
whose religious and melancholy spirit was
saved from insanity, at last, only by the hap
piest social influences.