Morning journal and courier., 1886-07-13
A CURIOUS STUDY.
Lapses of Intelligence in Persons o1
 Superior Intellect.


 Superior Intellect.
 From the Chronological Journal
 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 understanding, that the large hole would have served for both The au- thor of the 'Principia," one of the grandest works of human intellect, failed to perceive that kitten could go through hole made for a cat. Richard Brinsley Sheridan hired a suburban villa and two days later received a visit from friend, who was told to climb the fence Tn order to enter the house. "Why not open the gate?" the friend inquired. ''Because I can't unite the string" ''Why don't you cut it then?" Sheridan looked at him in amazement, drew his knife, cut the rope, walked through the gate and, turning round, kicked the gate off the hinges. of you love me kick me in the same fashion, i" he remarked to his friend The most bril- liant wit of his time, the dramatist who could unravel the most intricate complica- tions in stage situations, had climbed fence for two days for lack of the stroke of pen knife. A few years ago one of our famous men was found dead under circumstances which gave rise to suspicion of suicide. One of his acquaintances remarked ''He was certainly crazy. One evening called upon him and found him trying to write letter 1 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 l turned up the gas. His look of astonishment as he looked at the light, at me, at the letter and at the light again was something impossible to describe. Of course he was crazy. If he had not been he would have turned up the gas himself" So easily do we reach conclu- sions, so easily do we take things for grant ed. Yet Sir Isaac Newton was never sup posed to be Tout of his mind" and Sheridan was never suspected of being lunatic. The gas jet simply served to throw more light on the stupidity of sensible man, instead of proving by it's feeble glimmer the core spending feebleness of his intellect. Moth ing is more constantly and completely sur prising than these lapses of intelli- gence in persons whose intellect is acknowl- edged to be superior to the average. From a fool we expect foolishness and seldom have to complain of disappointment. From the wise expect wisdom, though sometimes fail to find it. It is said that it is only the fool who learns wisdom from experience, but the foolishness of sen sible people is generally of kind which ex- perience can in no way modify. It is occa- sionally variable, unexpected, of peculiar quality, admits no argument from precedent, gives no basis for calculations. Probably by contrast and incongruity it's effect is height ened, and it seems more senseless than ordi nary dullness because it is inevitably com pared with the usual mental brillianey. We learn from the entertaining ''Letters of Gus tav Flaubert" that he had prepared a die tionary of the stupid sayings of great men, and the volume is a unique and amusing one It was the illustrious Napoleon III. who made the profound observation: 1.-The wealth of country depends on its general prosperity" The famous Havin wrote, as if giving utterance to 8 most philosophical statement: ''As soon as a Frenchman cross es he frontier he finds himself on foreign soil.' Emerson says: "Men who have com handed great armies and taken great cities, who have made laws for an empire or pro- claimed the greatest discoveries in science, have sometimes shown the utmost idiocy in connection with the commonest affairs of 1ifa D