The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-11

seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare
died of a fever there contracted"
The insanity Of genius is itself psyche
logical problem, and comes before us with
most awful contrasts spectral life in
death" Illusion is prominent charac-
teristic of genius; this is not wondered
at when we consider that the workings OF
an imaginative mind are one continued
and protracted course of ideal creation.
OF this, illusion when the mind is con-
scious does not constitute insanity any
more than it can be termed disease. for
mental wandering may be under the con-
troll Of the will, whilst the systematic
functions and the concomitant organs are
in perfectly healthy condition.
Space is not at my disposal to enter
fully into details respecting all the
geniuses who have become admittedly
the victims of insanity, but 1 might emu
merate briefly some of the poetical ones
whose minds ultimately gave way but
whose works live after them.
1874. Torquato Tasso suffered from
mania periodique." He was, unfor-
turately, a victim to the literary envy of
the sovereign. He was regarded by some
more martyr than as an insane person.
He suffered from we'll marked aricular
decisions and phantasmagor:a. The ap-
paration was to him no fancy in his i'm
agination, but real human being, and
one of substance. He would converse elo-
quently with his imaginary familiar spir-
it, who, according to his statement, paid
him various visits. The discourses with
this spirit were eloquent and so sublime
that it was difficult to realize that he was
~ q hon kNr~ 80 &C.
invention.
The Authorizations of Tasso differed
from the creations of Shakespeare, and
yet, doubtless, Shakespeare saw the illu-
sion in the minds eye as clearly as Tas-
so did, but at the same time knew them
to be phantoms. 1t is very dangerous
thing to indulge to any extent in phanta-
sy, as the impression may become perma-
nent, and what was imaginative may be-
come reality. Abnormal cerebral circula-
ton is the supposed physical cause for
these states of phantasmagoria, which we
read OF as occurring in so many poetical
geniuses. One of the leading Characters
tics of genius is .rritability, showing a
highly strung nervous system; the condi-
ton of the mind IS often acutely sensi-
tive, sinking like mimosa from the breath
OF criticism, and when such state is fed
by the wear andjtear of the brain, the eff
feet may be perilous and destructive.
In the Seventeenth century we have
Nathaniel Lee, Jonathan Swift and Rich
ard Savage, all of insane temperament
1857. Nathaniel Lee suffered from
mania potu." This celebrated poet
dTamatist spent some of his last days in
Bethlehem hospital. Some of his trag-
edies were written in the cells of this
place, and it IS related on one occasion
when some one there, who ventured to
jeer at him in his misfortune, on re-
marking that, cit was an easy thing to
write like mad man. received a reply
as follows, mo, it is not an easy thing to
write like mad man, but it is very easy
to write like fool" He was ultimately
liberated from Bethlehem hospital, but
died at the age of "a in a nights de-
bauchery in the London streets.
1867. Jonathan Swift suffered from or
ganic disease of the br::n. He was one of
the most practical and plain-speakng
men of the century in which he lived. His
intellectual powers were of the highest
order, but he became fatuous and childish
and his reason was absolutely perverted
1893. Richard Savage had moral in
sanity. His acts were those of a man
driven to desperation, as result of his
own excuses; he sank whilst in prison
into "a detected condition which owed its
origin to the impossibil.ty of discrimin-
ating between the true perception of right
and wrong
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centu-
ries in addition to Lord Byron and Sir
Walter Scott regret to have to chronicle
large number of poet:cal geniuses whose
minds gave way: Jean Jacques Rous-
seau, William Collins, William Cowper
DR.. Beattie, Victor Albert, Robert Fer
gusson, Thomas Chatterton, Frederick
Schiller, Robert Bloomfield, Samuel Tay-
lor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Charles
Lamb, Charles Lloyd, Percy Bysshe Shell
ly, John Clare, James Gates, Percival
Henry Scott Riddell, Charles Fenno Hoff-
man and Edgar Allen Poe.
1712. Jean Jacques Rousseau, the
great French poet, suffered from bane
of moral insanity.
1920. William Collins, a versatile gen.
ius, suffered from melancholia, and dur
ing the whole Of his career there was a
strangeness in his behavior and manner
hardly consistent with complete rational
ity. He suffered from partial dementia
for six years previous to his decease
which took place at an early age.
1871. William Cowper had religious
melancholia. He was confined in an asy-
lum for eighteen months, suffering from
intense depression; he made three at
tempts at suicide The immediate cause
was some parliamentary disappointment
in some post which he was not able to &C
cept, and Dean Farrar has stated that
"Cowpers disease was due to the pitt
less anathemas.
1749. Victor Alfieri, who suffered from
well marked moral insanity, no doubt in
herited tendency to it, though in his lat
ter days he Gained down.
1850. Robert Ferguson suffered from
religious melancholia in consequence of
drink, which at this period was becoming
an increasing epidemic.
1852. Thomas Chatterton suffered from
monomania which eliminated in suicide.
He was always backward at school, his
articulation was impaired and heSitating,
and he was dismissed from school at the
age of 5. as being incorrigible and impos-
sible of education. By the eXertions of
his mother he was taught to read, and at
the age of II, ON his own admission, he
had devoured 70 books.
1859. Frederick Schiller, the great
Shakespeare of Germany, became a dip
somaniac.
1866. Robert Bloomfield suffered from
monomania and partial dementia, and
was in retirement for some time.
1772. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a
typical example of monomania, associated
with an insane craving for opium. This
terrible mental disorder was here inner
tied, his father ignoring the ordinary US
ages of society; the son was infirm of pur-
pose, enlisted as Dragon, and ultimate
ly became a Unitarian preacher. Much
of his life was passed in the day dreams