Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-04-15
A CURIOUS STORY.
Lapses of Intelligence in Persons Of Superior
Intellect.

Lapses of Intelligence In Persons Of Superior
Intellect.
Sir Isaac Newton constructed house
for his cats. For the convenience Of the
cat he cut large hole for entrance, for
the equal convenience of the kitten he
cut smaller one, and it was not until his
attention was called to it that he realized
the fact. which one would suppose might
be self evident to the feeblest understand
ing, that the large hole would have served
for both The author of the ''Principia,"
one of the grandest works of the human
intellect, failed to perceive that a kitten
could go through hole made for a cat
Richard Brinsley Sheridan hired a sub
urban villa, and two days later received a
visit from a friend, who was told to climb
the fence in order to enter the house.
"But why not open the gate?" the friend
inquired.
Because I can't unite the string.
"Why don't you cut it them"
Sheridan looked at him in amazement,
drew his knife, cut the rope, walked
through the gate, and, turning around
kicked it off the hinges.
'If you love me, please kick me in the
same fashion," he remarked to his friend
The most brilliant wit of his time, the
dramatist who could unravel the most in
tricate complications in stage situations,
had climbed a fence for two days
for lack of the stroke of pen
knife. A few days ago one of our
famous men was found dead under cir
cumstances which gave rise to suspicion
of suicide. One of his acquaintance re-
marked: "He was certainly crazy. One
evening [ called upon him and found him
trying to write a letter. [ could hardly
see my way across the room.
He complained that his eyesight must be
failing, as it was hard for him to follow
the lines upon the paper. In surprise
turned up the gas. His look of astonish-
ment as he looked at the light,at me, at
the letter, and the light again, was some
thing impossible TO describe. Of course
he was crazy. If he hadn't been he would
cave turned up the gas himself. So easily
do we reach our conclusions so easily do
we take things for granted. Yet Sir isaac
Newton was never supposed to be tout of
his mind and Sheridan was never sus-
pected of being a lunatic. The gas-jet
simply served to throw more light on the
stupidity of a sensible man, instead of
proving by its feble glimmer the cor
responding feebleness of his intellect.
Nothing is more constantly and COM
pletely surprising than these apparent
lapses of intelligence in persons whose in
tellect is acknowledged to be superior to
the average. From fool we expect fool
ishness, and seldom have we reason to
complain of disappointment. From the
wise to expect wisdom, though we some
times fail to find it. It is said that it is
only the fool who learns no wisdom from
experience, but the fOOlishneSs of
sensible people is generally of the
kind which experience can in no
way modify. 1t is occasional, variable,
unexpected, of a peculiar quality admits
no argument from precedent gives no
basis for calculation. Probably by con-
trast and incongruity it's effect is height
ened, and it seems more senSeless than or
binary dullness, because it is inevitably
compare with the usual mental brilliancy.
We can learn from the enterprising ''Let-
tiers of Gustave FIaubert" that he had pre-
pared a dictionary of ''the stupid sayings
of great men," and the vOlumne is a I'M
ique and amusing one. 1t was the illus
triOus Napoleon III. who made the pro-
found observation: ''The wealth of a coun-
try depends on its general prosperity
The famous Havin wrote as if giving ut
terance to a most valuable philosophical
statement: "As soon as a Frenchman
crosses the frontier he finds himself on
foreign soil" Emerson says: Men who
have commanded great armies and taken
great cities who have made laws for an
empire, or proclaimed the greatest discOv-
cries in science, have sometimes shown
the utmost idiOcy in connection with the
cOmmOnest affairs of life"