The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-03-16
THE DISEASE OF GENIUS"
Editorial IN Boston Globe


Balzac, in of his novels ex presses the follow
ing striking thought Genius Is terrible malady.
Every writer and student carries in his breast q
monster who devours the germs Of every noble
sentiment and feeling. One must he really great
man in order to preserve an equilibrium between
genius and the moral character. A. poet who is
not a giant, with the shoulders of Hercules,
inevitably ends either by destroying his genius
losing his heart"
Balzac does not develop this idea, and leaves us
in the dark to the law nature, and of this
strange malady which makes victims of all masters
OF prose and verse nor, perhaps has any body e'se
attempted adequately to discuss and solve the
enigma Yet the problem is very vital one and
full of deep interest. In everyday life all have
to cudgel our brains and draw upon our imagina-
ton in the effort to explain the seemingly indubit-
able fact of the incompatibility between high
intellectual or artistic development and moral
culture the ordinary virtues of good citizenship
We all know that talented authors, gifted orators
brilliant artists, musicians actors, and people of
rich and original individualites generally are in
many cases extremely incompetent men of business,
destitute OF all practical ability and knowledge,
unreliable and irresponsible. Too frequently, Also
they make very poor husbands and fathers and
though highly sensitive and responsive to abstract
suffering and imaginary interests, remain in real
life and in their actual relations cold indifferent
cruel, unfeeling, and even inhuman. Those who by
their productions charm, ennoble, instruct and
beautify others are often found TO be hopeless
pessimists The men most familiar with the dark
side of life often have least sympathy with the
unhappy; those who know and understand things
best concern themselves about them least.
There are three for this curious psychology
ical phenomenon, and q statement of them will at
once convince us that Balzsc right in declaring
that only giants conquer the natural discord he
describes. We can only point TO a few, very few
such-Goethe, Hugo, Emerson-while the rest of
our benefactors in literature and art have generally
ended as deplorably Balzac concludes they
must.
One of the causes of this conflict is pointed out
by Nj. L. Bourge in an excellent review of Flau-
berts life and correspondence. poet, or reflective
person, he truly observes, depends little for his
stock OF experiences upon actual facts He lives
mostly in an imaginary world, full of various cares
struggles, joys and sensations. He lives so to
speak, ahead of time, and forms conceptions and
pictures about everything long before he really has
the experience. Happiness, to poet, involves and
means much, he so generously and freely endows
his ideal with every conceivable feature of erase
and refined beauty, that, when happiness comes to
him, he feels disappointed, disenchanted and
bitterly deceived. "And is this alp" he asks
himself, and is led to deny the possibility of
happiness altogether.
The other two causes of the "disease of geniusn
are indicated by Russian poet and literary critic
M Morejroffsky. The average good citizen Is
essentially subjective In his views and opinions
His verdict Is sure to be determined by the ele-
mentary maxims Of right and wrong which are
inherent in him as social being. He never