Man of Genius — CHAPTER V. Conclusions

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS.

Between the physiology of the man of genius, therefore, and the pathology of the insane, there are many points of coincidence; there is even actual continuity.

This fact explains the frequent occurrence of madmen of genius, and men of genius who have become insane, having, it is true, characteristics special to themselves, but capable of being resolved into exaggerations of those of genius pure and simple.

The frequency of delusions in their multiform characters of degenerative characteristics, of the loss of affectivity, of heredity, more particularly in the children of inebriate, imbecile, idiotic, or epileptic parents, and, above all, the peculiar character of inspiration, show that genius is a degenerative psychosis of the epileptoid group.

This supposition is confirmed by the frequency of a temporary manifestation of genius in the insane, and by the new group of mattoids to whom disease gives all the semblance of genius, without its substance.

What I have hitherto written may, I hope (while remaining within the limits of psychological observation), afford an experimental starting-point for a criticism of artistic and literary, sometimes also of scientific, creations.

Thus, in the fine arts, exaggerated minuteness of detail, the abuse of symbols, inscriptions, or accessories, a preference for some one particular colour, an unrestrained passion for mere novelty, may approach the morbid symptoms of mattoidism.

Just so, in literature and science, a tendency to puns and plays upon words, an excessive fondness for systems, a tendency to speak of one’s self, and substitute epigram for logic, an extreme predilection for the rhythm and assonances of verse in prose writing, even an exaggerated degree of originality may be considered as morbid phenomena.

So also is the mania of writing in Biblical form, in detached verses, and with special favourite words, which are underlined, or repeated many times, and a certain graphic symbolism.

Here I must acknowledge that, when I see how many of the organs which claim to direct public opinion are infected with this tendency, and how often young writers undertake to discuss grave social problems in the capricious phraseology of the lunatic asylum, and the disjointed periods of Biblical times, as though our robust lungs were unable to cope with the vigorous and manly inspirations of the Latin construction, I feel grave apprehensions for the future of the rising generation.

On the other hand, the analogy of mattoids with genius, whose morbid phenomena only are inherited by them, and with sane persons, with whom they have shrewdness and practical sense in common, ought to put students on their guard against certain systems, springing up by hundreds, more particularly in the abstract or inexact sciences, and due to the efforts of men incompetent, from a lack either of capacity or knowledge of the subject, to deal with them.

In these systems declamation, assonances, paradoxes, and conceptions often original, but always incomplete and contradictory, take the place of calm reasoning based on a minute and unprejudiced study of facts.

Such books are nearly always the work of those true though involuntary charlatans, the mattoids, who are more widely diffused in the literary world than is commonly supposed.

Nor is it only students who should be on their guard against them, but especially politicians.

Not that, in an age of free criticism like our own, there is any danger that these pretended reformers, who are stimulated and guided solely by mental disease, should be taken seriously; but the obstacles justly opposed to them may, by irritating, sharpen and complete their insanity, transforming a harmless delusion--whether ideological, as in the case of most mattoids, or sensorial, as in monomaniacs--into active madness, in which their greater intellectual power, the depth and tenacity of their convictions, and that very excess of altruism which compels them to occupy themselves with public affairs, render them more dangerous, and more inclined to rebellion and regicide, than other insane persons.

When we reflect that, on the other hand, a genuine lunatic may give proof of temporary genius, a phenomenon calculated to inspire the populace with an astonishment which soon produces veneration, we find a solid argument against those jurists and judges who, from the soundness and activity of the intellect, infer complete moral responsibility, to the total exclusion of the possibility of insanity.

We also see our way to an interpretation of the mystery of genius, its contradictions, and those of its mistakes which any ordinary man would have avoided.

And we can explain to ourselves how it is that madmen or mattoids, even with little or no genius (Passanante, Lazzaretti, Drabicius, Fourier, Fox), have been able to excite the populace, and sometimes even to bring about serious political revolutions.

Better still shall we understand how those who were at once men of genius and insane (Mahomet, Luther, Savonarola, Schopenhauer), could--despising and overcoming obstacles which would have dismayed any cool and deliberate mind--hasten by whole centuries the unfolding of truth; and how such men have originated nearly all the religions, and certainly all the sects, which have agitated the world.

The frequency of genius among lunatics and of madmen among men of genius, explains the fact that the destiny of nations has often been in the hands of the insane; and shows how the latter have been able to contribute so much to the progress of mankind.

In short, by these analogies, and coincidences between the phenomena of genius and mental aberration, it seems as though nature had intended to teach us respect for the supreme misfortunes of insanity; and also to preserve us from being dazzled by the brilliancy of those men of genius who might well be compared, not to the planets which keep their appointed orbits, but to falling stars, lost and dispersed over the crust of the earth.

APPENDIX.

POETRY AND THE INSANE.

The following letter was written by a druggist confined in the Asylum of Sainte-Anne:-- Sainte-Anne, le 26 février 1880. MADAME,

Veuillez agréer l’hommage De ce modeste sonnet Et le tenir comme un gage De mon sincère respect.

SONNET.

Souvenez-vous, reine des dieux, Vierge des vierges, notre mère, Que vous êtes sur cette terre L’ange gardien mystérieux.

[485] The same man addressed to M. Magnan a long poem on a dramatic representation accompanied by the following graceful _envoi_:-- VÉNÉRÉ DOCTEUR,

L’estime et la reconnaissance Sont la seule monnaie du cœur Dont votre pauvre serviteur Dispose pour la récompense Qu’il doit à vos soins pleins d’honneur.

Recevez donc cet humble hommage, Docteur admiré, révéré, Et j’ajouterai bien-aimé, Si vous vouliez tenir pour gage Qu’en cela du moins J’AI PAYE.

[486] The following lines are from a long satirical poem by a writer who appears to have cherished much less respect for his physician.

He believed that he had been changed into a beast, and recognised a colleague in every horse or donkey he met.

He wished to browse in every field, and only refrained from doing so out of consideration for his friends:-- Les médicastres sans vergogne Qui changent en sale besogne Le plus sublime des mandats, Ces infâmes aliénistes, Qui, reconnus pour moralistes, Sont les pires des scélérats!

Ils détruisent les écritures Pour maintenir les impostures Des ennemis du bien public.

Ils prostituent leur justice Pour se gorger du bénéfice De leur satanique trafic.

[487] The author of the following lines on the same day made an attempt at suicide, and then a homicidal attack on his mother.

À MONSIEUR LE DOCTEUR C.

ÉPITRE (_13 mai 1887_).

Un docteur éminent sollicite ma muse.

Certes l’honneur est grand; mais le docteur s’amuse, Car, dans ce noir séjour, le poète attristé Par le souffle divin n’est guère visité....

Faire des vers ici, quelle rude besogne!

On pourra m’objecter que jadis, en Gascogne, Les rayons éclatants d’un soleil du Midi Réveillaient quelquefois mon esprit engourdi;

Il est vrai: dans Bordeaux, cité fière et polie, J’ai fêté le bon vin, j’ai chanté la folie, Celle bien entendu qui porte des grelots.

Mais depuis, un destin fatal à mon repos M’exile loin des bords de la belle Gironde, Qu’enrichissent les vins les plus fameux du monde!

Aussi plus de chansons, de madrigaux coquets!

Plus de sonnets savants, de bacchiques couplets!

Ma muse tout en pleurs a replié ses ailes, Comme un ange banni des sphères éternelles!

Dans sa cage enfermé l’oiseau n’a plus de voix....

Hélas!

je ne suis point le rossignol des bois, Pas même le pinson, pas même la fauvette;

Vous me flattez, docteur, en m’appelant poète....

Je ne suis qu’un méchant rimeur, et je ne sais Si ces alexandrins auront un grand succès....

Cependant mon désir est de vous satisfaire;

Votre estime m’honore et je voudrais vous plaire, Mais Pégase est rétif quand il est enchaîné;

D’un captif en naissant le vers meurt condamné.

Si vous voulez, docteur, que ma muse renaisse, Je ne vous dirai pas: rendez-moi ma jeunesse.

Non, mais puisque vos soins m’ont rendu la santé, Ne pourriez-vous me rendre aussi la liberté?

Des vers!

Pour que le ciel au poète en envoie Que faut-il?

le grand air, le soleil et la joie!

Accordez-moi ces biens: mon luth reconnaissant, Pour vous remercier comme un Dieu bienfaisant, Peut-être trouvera, de mon cœur interprète, Des chants dignes de vous, et dignes d’un poète!

The following lines well express the solitary sadness of the melancholiac:-- A SE STESSO.

E con chi l’hai?

Con tutti e con nessuno, L’ho con il cielo, che si tinge a bruno, L’ho con il metro, che non rende i lai, Che mi rodono il petto.

Nell’odio altrui, nel mal comun mi godo.

And these are of marvellous delicacy and truth:-- TIPO FISICO-MORALE DI P.

L. QUI RICOVERATO.

Al primo aspetto Chi ti vede, saria Costretto a dir che a te manca l’affetto;

E male s’apporria;

Che invece spesse fiate, Sotto ruvido vel, palpitan lene L’anime innamorate Che s’accendon, riscaldansi nel bene.

Così rosa dal petalo Invisibile quasi Mette l’effluvio dai raccolti vasi, Come dal gelsomino, E i delicati odor dell’amorino;

Nemico a tutti i giuochi, Di Venere, di Bacco indarno i fuochi Ti soffiano; la cute E di tal forza che sembrano mute Le vezzose lusinghe ...

E invano a darti il fiato spira l’etra.

M. S.

The following little piece is a masterpiece of insane poetry:-- A UN UCCELLO DEL CORTILE.

Da un virgulto ad uno scoglio Da uno scoglio a una collina, L’ala tua va pellegrina Voli o posi a notte e dì.

Noi confitti al nostro orgoglio, Come ruote in ferrei perni, Ci stanchiamo in giri eterni, Sempre erranti e sempre qui!

CAVALIERE Y.

INDEX.

Albertus Magnus, 7 Alcoholism in men of genius, 54, 316, 325 Alexander the Great, 6, 54, 146 Alfieri, 20, 22, 23, 27, 28, 103 Amiel, 52-53 Ampère, 29, 34, 67, 315 Anæsthesia of men of genius, 33 Anabaptists, 256 Arabesques by insane artists, 200 Argentine men of genius, 313 Aristotle, 8, 13 Art in the insane, 179 _et seq.

_ Artists, distribution of great European, 117 _et seq.

_ Atavism in literature of the insane, 172 Bach, 139 Bacon, 61 Balzac, 6, 47, 342 Barometrical condition and genius, 101 Baudelaire, 28, 69-72, 316, 325 Beethoven, 34, 61, 146 Berlioz, 27 Bernouilli, 141 Blake, W. , 6, 56 Bolyai, 73 Bruno, G. , 25, 35, 47, 106, 316 Buffon, 34, 339 Burns, 41 Byron, 7, 9, 29, 56, 61, 62, 103, 146 Cabanis, 17 Cæsar, Julius, 39, 54 Campanella, 285-291 Campbell, T. , 6, 38, 146 Cardan, 21, 35, 74-77, 145, 314, 323 Carducci, 38 Carlo Dolce, 67 Carlyle, 7, 61 Casanova, 59 Cavendish, 14 Cavour, 43, 354 Cerebral characteristics of men of genius, 8-13, 327 Chamfort, 14 Charity, hysterical, 349 Charles V. , 13, 146 Chateaubriand, 38, 44 Chopin, 43, 47, 48 Choreic symptoms in men of genius, 38 Civilization on genius, influence of, 153 _et seq.

_ Clare, J. , 165 Clarke, Marcus, 8 Climatic influences on genius, 117 _et seq.

_ Codazzi, 73 Coleridge, 22, 44, 55 Coleridge, Hartley, 55 Columbus, 56 Comte, 15, 60, 73 Concato, 72 Conception of men of genius, 149 Cowley, 23 Cowper, 24 Cranial characteristics of men of genius, 8-13, 327 Criminality of genius, 57 _et seq.

_ Cuvier, 11 Dante, 8, 11, 15, 35, 46, 106 Darwin, 13, 106, 356-357 Décadent poets, 230 _et seq.

_ Descartes, 22 Dickens, 23 Diderot, 34 Discoveries, dates of, 105 _et seq.

_ Disease on genius, influence of, 151 Domenichino, 17 Donizetti, 9, 11, 62 Dostoïeffsky, 8, 321, 339-341 Double personality of men of genius, 24 Dreams, genius working during, 21, 326 Dumas _père_, 7, 62 Dupuytren, 41 Education on genius, influence of, 159-160 Egoism of men of genius, 318-319 Enfantin, Prosper, 295-296 Epilepsy and genius, 38 Epileptoid nature of genius, 336 _et seq.

_ Erasmus, 6, 8, 13 Flaxman, 7 Flaubert, 7, 14, 17, 28, 40, 50, 60, 331, 341 Florentine genius, 123, 154-155 Foderà, 91 _Folie du doute_ of men of genius, 48 _et seq.

_ Fontenelle, 62 Forgetfulness of men of genius, 33 Foscolo, 9, 11, 18, 20, 29, 31, 104, 106 Francis of Assisi, 258-260 Frederick II.

, 62 French genius, 127 Galvani, 109-110, 114 Gambetta, 11, 12 Gauss, 12 Genius, Aristotle on, 1;

Plato on, 2;

Diderot on, 3;

Richter on, 19 Genius, a neurosis, 5;

distinct from talent, 19, 35;

in the insane, 161 _et seq.

_;

in mattoids, 226 _et seq.

_;

its epileptoid nature, 336 _et seq.

_;

in the sane, 353 _et seq.

_ Genius, characteristics of men of, 6;

height, 6;

frequency of rickets, 7;

pallor, 7;

emaciation, 7;

cranial and cerebral characteristics, 8-13, 327;

stammering, 13;

lefthandedness, 13;

sterility, 13;

unlikeness to parents, 14;

physiognomy, 14;

precocity, 15, 315;

delayed development, 16;

misoneism, 17;

vagabondage, 18, 316;

unconsciousness and instinctiveness, 19;

somnambulism, 21;

inspiration, 22;

double personality, 24;

stupidity, 25;

hyperæsthesia, 26;

anæsthesia, 33;

forgetfulness, 33;

originality, 35, 317-318;

fondness for special words, 37;

frequency of chorea and epilepsy, 38;

melancholy, 40;

delusions of grandeur, 45;

_folie du doute_, 48 _et seq.

_;

alcoholism, 54, 316;

hallucinations, 56;

moral insanity, 57;

longevity, 64;

insanity, 66 _et seq.

_;

meteorological influences on, 100 _et seq.

_;

climatic influences on, 117 _et seq.

_;

influence of race, 126, 133;

influence of sex, 137;

influence of heredity, 139 _et seq.

_;

relation to criminality, 144 _et seq.

_;

age of parents, 149;

conception, 149;

influence of disease on, 151;

influence of civilization on, 153 _et seq.

_;

influence of education, 159-160;

characteristics of insane, 314 _et seq.

_;

analogy of sane and insane, 330 _et seq.

_;

in revolutions, 334-335 Giordani, 104 Giusti, 40, 104 Goethe, 7, 15, 21, 40 Gogol, 98-99 Goldsmith, 6 Goncourts, the, 28, 331, 339, 342 Grandeur among men of genius, delusions of, 45 Graphomaniacs, 212 _et seq.

_ Gray, 43 Guiteau, 313 Haller, 67, 319, 320 Hallucinations of men of genius, 56-57 Hamilton, Sir W. R.

, 109 Hamlet, 53 Haydn, 19 Head injuries and genius, 8, 151 Heat on genius, influence of, 103 _et seq.

_ Height of men of genius, 6 Heine, 6, 103, 152 Hoffmann, E. T.

A.

, 90-91 Hogarth, 6 Howard, John, 8, 351 Hugo, V. , 46 Hyperæsthesia of men of genius, 26 Insane, art and the, 179 _et seq.

_ Insane and the weather, 100 Insane among savages, the, 245 Insanity and genius, 66 _et seq.

_, 13, 143, 145, 148, 161 _et seq.

_, 314 _et seq.

_, 332 Insanity, epidemics of religious, 251 _et seq.

_ Inspiration, genius in, 22 Instinctiveness of genius, 19 Jesus, 45, 63 Jewish genius, 133-137 Johnson, Dr. , 7, 49, 57 Kant, 8, 10 Kerner, 146 Keshub Chunder Sen, 244 Klaproth, 17 Kleist, 23 Knutzen, 244 Krüdener, Julie de, 257 Lagrange, 110 Lamartine, 20 Lamb, C. , 6, 13, 67 Lamennais, 15 Laplace, 18 Lasker, 11 Lawsuit mania, 224-226 Lazzaretti, 296-308 Lee, N. , 67 Leibnitz, 22 Lefthandedness of men of genius, 13 Lenau, 38, 85-87, 315, 316, 321, 325 Lesage, 104 Leopardi, 7, 41, 53, 104 Linnæus, 32 Literary mattoids, 209 _et seq.

_ Longevity of men of genius, 64 Lovat’s autocrucifixion, 183 Loyola, 257 Luther, 260-261 Mahomet, 31, 39, 325 Maine de Biran, 50, 101-103, 151 Mainländer, 72 Malebranche, 56 Malibran, 27 Mallarmé, 231 Malpighi, 108, 114 Manzoni, 49 Matteucci, 111 Mattoids, 212 _et seq.

_;

of genius, 226 _et seq.

_;

in art, 239;

in politics and religion, 242 _et seq.

_ Megalomania, 45-48 Melancholy in men of genius, 40-45 Mendelssohn, F. , 7 Mendelssohn, M. , 7, 13 Meteorological influences on genius, 100 _et seq.

_ Meyerbeer, 15 Michelangelo, 13, 15, 354-356 Michelet, 103, 229 Mill, J. S.

, 44 Milton, 8, 13, 104 Misoneism of men of genius, 17 Molière, 39, 42 Monge, 33 Moral insanity in men of genius, 57, 201, 333 Mountainous regions and genius, 128 _et seq.

_ Mozart, 20, 42 Musicians, distribution of great Italian, 120 _et seq.

_ Musset, A. de, 61 Napoleon, 18, 38, 49, 61, 103, 342-346 Nerval, Gérard de, 44, 68-69, 164 Newton, 17, 21, 80-81 Obscenity in art of the insane, 200-201 Originality of men of genius, 35, 317-318;

in the insane, 184-186 Orographic influences on men of genius, 122 Pallor of men of genius, 7 Paganini, 39 Paranoia, 173 Parents of men of genius, 144 _et seq.

_ Passanante, 308-313 Pascal, 39, 315, 316, 320 Patriotism and genius, 64 Peter the Great, 39 Philanthropists and moral insanity, 351 Physiognomy of men of genius, 8, 14 Poe, 318, 320 Poetry and the insane, 363-366 Political mattoids, 242 _et seq.

_ Pope, 7 Poushkin, 30, 103, 105 Praga, 326 Precocity of genius, 15, 315, 330 Race on genius, influence of, 117 _et seq.

_, 133 Religious doubts of men of genius, 318 Religious mattoids, 242 _et seq.

_ Renan, 50-52, 147 Restif de la Bretonne, 16 Revolutions and men of genius, 334-335 Richelieu, 39 Rickets in men of genius, 7 Rienzi, Cola da, 263-285 Rossini, 22, 35, 42 Rouelle, 33, 48 Rousseau, J. J.

, 11, 22, 81-85, 103, 314, 324 Saint Paul, 347-348 Sand, George, 42 San Juan de Dios, 291-294 Sanity and genius, 353 _et seq.

_ Savages and the insane, 245 Savonarola, 261-263 Schiller, 7, 10, 15, 22, 23, 41, 105 Schopenhauer, 18, 30, 91-98, 148, 315 Schumann, 9, 11, 68 Scotch genius, 154 Scott, Walter, 7, 8, 17 Sesostris, 354 Sex in genius, influence of, 136 Sexual abnormalities of men of genius, 316 Shelley, 22, 56 Socrates, 8, 21, 33, 38 Somnambulism of men of genius, 21 Spallanzani, 104, 110 Spanish genius, 127 Stammering in men of genius, 13 Sterility of men of genius, 13 Sterne, 7, 8 Stupidities of men of genius, 25 Suicide and genius, 41 Swedenborg, 256 Swift, 79-80, 315 Sylvester, 104 Symbolism in insane art, 187 _et seq.

_ Széchényi, 87-90 Talent and genius, 9 Tasso, 55, 77-79, 314, 316, 321 Thackeray, 10 Thermometrical influences on genius, 103 Tolstoi, 50 Torricelli, 109 Tourgueneff, 7, 10 Unconsciousness of genius, 19 Vagabondage of men of genius, 18, 316 Vanity of men of genius, 315, 330 Verlaine, 232-237 Villon, 59 Volta, 9, 17, 109 Voltaire, 7, 8, 42 Weather on genius, influence of, 100 _et seq.

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