Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1908-03-20

wear or Wrappers OF every style and
color, or TO be absorbed in researches
and calculations and ridiculous inyen.
tions"
But, after all, semi-insanity in some
forms has it's advantages. Many
world-famous men-poets, mathema,
ticians, philosophers, historians,
writer's, statesmen and scientists
would probably never have been heard
of but for that one little streak of in.
sanity which lent luster and impetus
to their minds and prompted them to
accomplish something Of tremendous
value to mankind.
For instance, ''Tolstoi belongs to the
category of the semi-insane who are
termed originals At eight years of
age he was seized with an irresistible
desire to fly. This idea haunted him
to such q degree that he decided to
put 1t into practice. He shut himself
up in his study room, climbed up to
the window and made the movements
for flying in the air. He fell from a
height of more than 16 feet and was
sick for some time following"
Tolstoi's Peculiar Mania.
Later Tolstoi's particular brand of
insanity prompted him to fall in love,
not once, but threefold; for, having
met the three daughters of DR.. Berce,
he began by being very much taken
by the oldest, then he thought he was
In love with the second, and finally
fell In love with the third" The triple
romance ended abruptly, for Tolstoi
suddenly decided that instead of get
ting married he would NOW hay with
the moujtks in peasants blouse.
Ossip Lourie, who made a psyche.
logical study of many of the great Rus
sian novelists Of the nineteenth CEN
fury, summed up Tolstoi's case in the
following way:
Tolstoi is one of those rare men to
whom the English aphorism, They
are certainly cracked, but the crack
let's in light might apply. In word,
Tolstof was a semi-insane genius"
Even Socrates must have had a
streak of insanity in him, for he event
into ecstacies which were almost cata-
lepttc fits. At table, or in the streets
OF Athens, or in the camps, he would
suddenly stop short, sometimes with
out motive. At other times, on the &C.
casion OF sneeze either by himself
or one of his neighbors, he would act,
or would not act, according to whether
the sneeze had taken place on his
right hand or on his Left
Insanity Of Some Great Men.
| Prof. Grasset cites the cases of
many other great men of past and
present times whose brands of in
sanity were manifested in various
ways Pascal, for instance, could not
stand seeing water without falling into
a perfect fit of passion" Then Au-
guste Comte who has exerted a vast
and lasting influence on the philo-
sophical position of the savants of the
nineteenth century, WAS undoubtedly
semi-insane when he was not wholly
insane. He wrote incoherent letters.
While he was taking walk one day
he wanted to drag his wife with him
into the Lake d'Enghein. During his
meals he would try to drive his knife
into the table, like Walter Scott's
Highlander and he would order the
succulent back of pig and recfte bits
of Homer"
OF Cork, Prof Grasset writes that
he made an attempt to commit sui.
eide at the age of 18 and belongs to
the category Of the semiinsane who
have been termed vagabonds or wan
derers''
Guy de Maupassant died insane. He
had often confessed to Paul Bourget
that he frequently saw his double. In
going into his own room he would see
himself seated upon his own sofa. The
roots of his disease seemed to be
confused with the very qualities of his
talent" Villemain had ideas of perse.
cution. Jean jacques Rousseau was
successfully clockmaker, mountebank,
music master, painter and servant.
and then followed the paths of medi-
cine, music. theology and botany. He
used to mediate bareheaded in the
sun at midday. He fell in love at IL.
He would suddenly depart from an
Inn, leaving his trunk behind him.
Gerard de Nerval, the political writer
and poet, was subject to hallucina-
tons He would be found on the street
corner, his hat in his hand, lost in
sort of ecstacy. In the Tuileries he
saw the goldfish in the big fountain
putting their heads out of the water
trying to entice him to follow them to
the bottom. The queen of Sheba was
waiting for him, they said. He was
found at the Palais Royal dragging
live lobster along at the end of a hlue