The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-03-10
ON THE BoRDER LINE.
Men OF Genius Often Near a Condi.
tion Of Insanity.


tent of the border lire between in
sanity and genius has been a matter
of dispute with doctors. scientists and
deep thinkers. says an exchange.
The lives Of famous men and even
women. Of the lust two centuries,
however. seem to furnish striking evil
dence that there Is very strong link
between genius and insanity. And
even in cases where actual insanity
was not apparent there are many in
stances of genius who suffered from
a variety Of ills and disorders which
In reality were symptoms of brain
disease.
Charles Dickens. II is we'll known
as he advanced in years suffered from
sleeplessness. gout. incipent paralysis
and loss of memory. and ultimately
died at 5S from effusion OF blood upon
the brain. Wilkie Collins was such a
sufferer from nerves that he was ac-
customed to take laudanum in i'm
mense doses. Thackeray died sud-
denly at So and for the last fourteen
years of his life was continually all
ing and subject to certain painful
spasms.
Charles Lamb was confined to a lu-
natic asylum for six weeks about his
twentieth year, the period of which
he wrote most Of his sonnets. and all
his life was subject to stammering.
violent headaches and was constitu-
tionally nervous and timid.
Edgar Allen Poe more than once
attempted or threatened to commit
suicide while under delusions OF per-
secution. and George Sand confessed
that she also at times felt tempted to
take her own life.
George Elliott. too suffered greatly
from fits of depression. while Sir Wal
ter Scott complained of certain hallu-
cinations and thought he saw the
image of his friend Byron after IT,.
latter's Death. the image. after exa,ni.
ma: 'on. proving to be nothing but the
folds OF some drapery.
Sir Edward Landseer toward the
close Of his life, showed signs of in
sanity. while the eccentricities of
Turner were quite of the insane order.
Among other eminent artists 1t might
be mentioned that Sir Thomas Law.
renee suffered from a symptom Of
brain disorder; David Wilkie lost the
power Of attention and ultimately had
o nervous seizure which made his
speech incoherent, while Romney suf-
fered 20 much from the hallucina-
ton that his talent would desert him
that at the height Of his fame he
thought of relinquising art altogether
Referring to famous poets. 1t might
be mentioned that Cowper tried to
commit suicide on several occasions,
was an inmate of q lyunatic asylum
for eighteen months. and died insane.
sank into a state OF imbecili-
ty. In which he died; Shelley was
known az Mad Shelley" at Eton.
while 1t was curious fact that the
of all poets. Mad Jack BY
ron." who led such wild. dissolu.c
life, Away dreaded insanity.
Several famous men. by the way.
have lived In dread of insanity. Swift.
who. before he became celebrity.
was called the Mad Parson'' and who
died an imbecile. was always haunted
by the dread of going out Of his
mind.
Doctor Johnson declared that he
had been mad all his life, or. at least
not sober" and so great was his fear
Of insanity that at times he must have
been on the brink Of mental derange-
ment.
The lives of famous musicians like
Wagner. Bach. Handel. Mozart, Be-
thoven and Mendelssohn. all tend to
bear out the contention that insanity
and genius are closely allied.
Then again the whims and fads of
that famous French author Balzac
were such that they could only have
originated from a disordered mind.
He would live In garret under an
assumed name. sleep from 6 in the
evening until midnight and then work
from twelve to twenty hours at
stretch. dressed in a white robe of a
Dominican friar, with q black skull
cap on his head and surrounded by
a dozen candles.
The stage. too, furnishes examples
Of insane genuis--notably. Edmund
Kean. whose mind became unhinged
at As years of age. julius Brutus
Booth. the father Of Wilkes Booth.