The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-23
THE TAINT OF GENUS.
Some Great Men Who Affect to Have
Been Afflicted with Great Failings-No.
table Examples of Mental, Moral or
Physical Ecccntrieity.

u lulli tht hlnlltupoilS INES.
The forms of the degeneracy of gem
ius are many and varied, Epilepsy is
one of the most common arrangements.
1t is astonishing to find how many
statesmen and philosophers. artists and
soldiers, have been afflicted with this
malady. Caesar was an epileptic, as
was also Richelieu. The Man of Des-
tiny was subject to all the ills of com
mon clay: the great Napoleon, the
man of thousand thrones" was the
victim to pseudo epilepsy. All the phil
osophy of Pascal did not avail against
the disease, and Moliere and Schiller
also succumbed to its paroXysms, SeV-
eral of the great musicians were affect
ed in this way. The aesthetic eXalta-
tion in which were born the wonderful
harmonies of Mozart. Handel and Pag-
anini was often followed by pitiful epi-
leptic attacks. Paresis is another bale
full satellite of genius.
The great satirst and misanthrope,
Dean Swift. suffered from this disease;
so also did Schumann and Linnaeus.
the botanst. The dramatic profession
shows many instances of degeneracy.
Both Edwin Booth and John McCulloch
were Interrupted in their brilliant ca
reer by paresis.
Caesar as an Inchriatc.
Alcoholism and morphinisnl are a
common form of degeneration among
men of genius. The ancients especially
showed this weakness. Alexander the
Great died in an alcoholic attack, and
Ceasar was often carried home intoXi-
Gated by his soldiers. Socrates, Seneca
and Cato had the same failing. Many
modern authors. artists and musicians
have shown degeneracy in this form.
Sheridan. Steele, Addison, Charles
Lamb. Madame de Stael, Alfred de
Musset. Handel and Turner the painter
are conspicuous examples. Burns.
sweetest singer of all times and
tongues wrecked his life with drink
ing. Poe might have surpassed Shelley
as an ideal lyric poet, had he not
foundered his brilliant genius upon the
same rock. In our own times there are
sad instances of this obliquity. James
Whitcomb Riley, who has sung his way
| to throne in the hearts of the people.
was at one time given to dissipation.
And Eugene Field, the lullaby minstrel.
who sings Of shuttle, ShOon and Amber
Locks" and whose verses are the incar-
nation of ideality. Eugene Ficld-it IS
! heresy to repeat twas only saved
/ from the ruin OF drunkenness by the
gold cure. Culeridge, master Of alb
stract thought. suffered agOnies from
| the opium habit, which finally eclipsed
his brilliant philosophic powers. The
| polished satirst. De Quincy, was also
for years a victim to the vice.
! Men of genius are often deficient in
moral sense Salust ana Bacon We're
felOns. ROsseau was n gross and SEN
timentaf licentlate Byron, the most
majestic of the poets. tainted his tu-
multous ocean-born measures with the
! Immortality that underlined his charac-
ter. The weak and gifted Goethe
dragged his muse into the mire. Wag-
ner, whose wild harmonies surge heav-
en- high, dipped the piniOns of his genius
| in the depths of passion. And Pierre
Lott, whose works are an ecstacy of ten
derness and tears. has also descohdcd
| into the abyss of vulgarlty.
The Affections BlunicI.
ABdlll, II II lllt ubftllDllS illil are
| blunted. And the man of genius Is
strangely apathetic in regard to every
thing that does not concern himself.
Responsive and sympathetic when need
or suffering are forced upon his atten-
tion, he is ordinarily blind to their ex-
istence and careless of the claims of
even those who are dearest To him.
Newton is "a pre-eminent example of
this cold and suspicious temperament,
and q long list of celibates evinces the
same degeneracy in a large proportion
of the men Of genius. Among them are
Kant, Pitt, Beethoven, Galileo, Des-
cartes, Locke, SpinoZa, Leibntz, Gray,
Dalton Hume, Gibbon, Macauley,
Lamb, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus.
Joshua Reynolds, Handel, Mendelssohn,
Meyerbeer and Voltaire.
A very common form of the mental
weakness of genius Is what Is termed
in French "folie du doute." 1t betrays
itself in absurd idiosyncrasies. DR..
johnson was a bundle of these mental
mannerisms one of the habits was to
touch every post as he passed If he
missed one he had to turn back and
touch 1t. Absent-mindedness is another
symptom of degeneracy. Newton once
tried to stuff his niece's finger into the
bowl of his pipe
Mclanchoia Very Common.
Melanchola Is an almost invariable
attendant of genius. Milton was af-
ficted with the malady and Byron and
Cowper and Lamb suffered intensely
from this cause. Beethoven, Heine,
Chopin and Tasso were others conspic-
uous for this form of degeneracy. Even
Longfellow, Bryant and Whittier suf-
fered from melancholy. Halluclna-
tions tre another symptom of the dis
eased condition. Shelley was subject
to hallucinatlons as We're Mozart and
most of the eminent theologians. Savon-
arola, Luther, Bunyan and Sweden
borg.
Acute mania and suicidal impulse are
the final stage of degeneracy Lamb
was at times quite insane The elder
Booth had attacks OF acute mania.
Guy de Maupassant died few years
ago in the high tide OF youth, n ravlng
maniac. His brilliant sketches. with
their vivid imagery. their keen sense of
terror, their morbid acuteness are evil
IDENTIFY the work Of madman. Haw-
thorne's works are also full of the SOM
ber psychology. fantastic whlms and
gloomy, overstrained emotion that give