The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

1 The world has so pronounced him. Some | of the English critics say that he was the greatest that America ever produced; i; others holding that he was America's s only genius. Yet. he was mailman. doubt not that his morbid introspection led him to write these lines of despair, which he applied to his own future: And the lamp-light o'er him streaming Throws his shadow on the floor;
 And my soul from out that shadow, That lies floating on the floor,
 Shall be lifted nevermore."
 Who does not know of Goethe's attempt at suicide Of the self-murder of Au- gust Comte, the founder of positive philosophy? And who does not know the same thing of Hugh Miller, the great Scotch genius? And of Haydon, the Eng fish painter. whose name has been inn mortalized by his two wonderful paint ipgs, ''The Entrance of Christ Into Jerusalem" and "Napoleon At St. Hell ena"?
 What a genius was he who gave to the world the music ."rhe Erl Konig," and the
 
 nothing of his 'sWho Is Sylvia" said to be one of the most finished songs ever written, or of his ten symphonies, or of his "A sonatas, or of his 400 lyrics; and yet poor Schubert, toward the last, lost his reason.
 I suppose the musical composer of greatest critical faculty that Germany ever produced. with, perhaps, the single exception of Bach, was Schumann. His masterly orchestral symphonies are said by the technically educated to have marked an era in musical composition by their intricate harmony and originality. Of this cannot judge; but of his lighter work I can speak; for I have been moved and thrilled by their loftiness of theme, their extreme daintiness and the exalted beauty of a number of his lyrics. Yet, this wonderful genius. whose heart was full of Gods song birds, became de- mented, attempted suicide and finally died at Endenich, near the city of Bonn. in an asylum for the insane. For many years he had suffered with a disease of the brain. yet went on singing to the heart of the world.
 But here these illustrations must end, although the list of those who as Lamer- tine said. suffered with the disease called genius,' might be extended
 Genius may not be a disease, but that at times the genius is mentally diseased, who can deny in the fact of such con clusions as have been reached by innum- erable specialists? The late pr. Ham, mond, one of America's most noted neurologists, in his treatise on Insanity" published In 1Sss says, ''rhe discrimina- ton of the highest flights of genius from insanity is difficult and at times impos- sible for they exist in one and the same person."
 A former United States specialist in the bureau of education, Dr. Mcdonald. writ ing on Abnormal Man." gives this as the conclusion of his Investigations, Tt appears that the fundamental cause in both genius and insanity is the same; it Is the excess of physical or nervous en- ergy''
 Be genius disease or not, one is cer- tainly apt to say with Lord Beacons- field, who echoed a statement made long before his time, that there is but a step between genius and insanity"
 Until I had reached this point In my subject had forgotten that. had among my books 'Heredityr by the great French psychologist Tn. Ribot. I have just now looked over some of its pages.