River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-03-03
MIsFoRTUNEs OF The GREAT.
Men of Genius Afflicted with Mental
Disorders and Physical
Intersections

In a recent number of the Northwest
Medicine is printed an interesting artia
Gle by DR.. Ernest Crutcher, of Montana,
on 1.-The Penalty of Genius" which, il
answering no other purpose. says the
Chicago Tribune, is consolation to the
soldier il the great army of the medi-
OGRE who makes carcass of his body
and a jelly of his brain
The geography of his abiding place
may have something to do with the max
i'm with which he begins his reflections.
Genius, in one respect, is like gold
mum bers of persons are constantly writ
ing about both who have neither" A
study of the biography of the intellectu-
al geniuses of all history seems to indi-
cate that possession of great talent is
had at fearful price. The most cursory
examination of the list of great men
will manifest an appalling number of
epileptics, insane, neurotics, moral per-
verts, misanthropes, hypochondriacs, or
misshapen bodies.
Nor is the list limited to poets, authors
statesmen and soldiers, for there is
scarcely musician whose name has not
come down to us as famous who was not
likewise in some way afflicted.
Great wit to madness sure is close
allied" said old Dryden, and he spoke
truly. Macaulay- declared "all poets in
sane" The writings of some of the
giant intellects of history plainly avow
uncomfortable impulses to insane acts
and many toward suicide The roster of
self-destroyed men of letters is long
me, nor was there any reasonable eX
cuse for it except an uncomfortable i'm
pulse to such an act
Swift, Johnson, Southey, Cowper, By
ron, Shelly, Goldsmith, Luther, Lamb,
Poe, Socrates, Richelieu, Goethe, Crom-
we'll, Rousseau, Joan of Arc, Mozart
Chopin, Tasso, Beethoven-how long
the list might be made!-all exhibited
insanity in active form or were afflicted
with Authorizations. Caesar, Mo-
manned, Paul the apostle, Byron, Ma
poleon, Charles w., Cambyses, Peter the
Great, Moliere were epileptics Pope
was little crooked thing" and prey
to hallucinations.
To undertake to catalogue all the
noted men and women in the world of let
tiers and music who suffered from nerv-
Gus complaints, melancholia, or de-
1usions of special sense would stretch
the list out to startling length. In near
ly every instance of extraordinary men
tai power, either of authorship, inven-
ton, or music, there seemed attached
or consequent some nervous affection or
strong disposition to insanity. Suicide
has been the commonest ending of the
great men of the world. Standing out
almost alone as a well balanced man is
the name of the greatest Of them all
Shakespeare. Balzac, his nearest ap-
proach ir scope and power of genius.
died at So of brain trouble.
Emerson looms ont in the sky of lit
erature cool in head and steady of
nerve, but even he, like Swift, "died at
the top" 1t is singular fact that the
majority of the geniuses of history had
some obliquity of mind or body. AS a
rule, the great geniuses of the world
died childless. No prominent genius
was wanting in egotisn.
Among the many thoughts which pre-
sent themselves is the one of the few
female geniuses. The most prominent
in literature were Nine. de Stael, George
Sand, and George Eliot.
Another thought is the smallness in
figure of those possessing or being pos
sessed by fine minds. The list of large
or even tall men among the great is mar
rowed, and those which occur are Vol
taire, Rousseau, Schopenhauer, Peter the
Great, Johnson and Scott Great
genius is almost always connected with
small stature, or defective body, or one
sided character.
The small proportion of great minds
that occur in given number of millions
of people is beyond belief when COM
puted. Prof. Schaler, in his book, "The
Individual" AYERS that after the lapse
of 1000 years not one name in 100, 0O0,-
900 is remembered.
It is common observation that in a
man or woman who has talent of un-
usual sort in any special direction there
is found one-sided characters who do
silly things, or are extremely nervous,
or are intolerably irascible of temper
History is full of the names of brainy
men and women who have gone insane
because of some intellectual feat.
Men and women of unusual mental
ity seem to hold it at the cost of physical
degeneration. The greatest minds of
history have been contained in con-
temptible bodies or frames that quickly
became impaired-starved perhaps-by
the undue activity of the mind.