THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENIUS. 391 



ists in his fancy. The true poet does not versify because he would, 

 but because he must. The comparison of traits applied to a con- 

 siderable number of typical " men of genius " leads to the conclu- 

 sion that the word does not express any one psychological concept, 

 and that nobody has succeeded in giving a pregnant definition of 

 the quality or is likely to do so. As insanity is equally indefinable, 

 and it is impossible to draw a sharp line between mental sanity 

 and mental derangement, it may seem useless to attempt to com- 

 pare two such indefinite quantities ; still, the comparison may 

 possibly enrich our knowledge and lead us toward a recognition 

 of the truth. 



It is no newfangled notion that genius and insanity are con- 

 nected. It has been reiterated from Plato down. The chief con- 

 dition of mental sanity is a well-proportioned development of the 

 different psychical factors. But as in the development of the 

 different mental faculties, so also in their proportion to one an- 

 other, a certain latitude of health is to be allowed. In one man 

 fancy is preponderant ; in another, consecutive thought ; while a 

 third may have particularly strong feelings as his characteristic. 

 Yet we have no reason to say that these minds transgress the 

 border of health. It is the difference in the relation of the differ- 

 ent psychical elements that makes the diversity of men's charac- 

 ters. Now, we know that there are no two characters in the world 

 that are precisely alike. It follows that there is no norm for 

 these relations. The higher the grade of development of the 

 genius and of the individual, the more prominent will differences 

 of psychical factors become, and a correspondingly greater lati- 

 tude of health must be allowed. 



A comparison is instituted between the different symptoms of 

 exaggerated proportions in development which have been discov- 

 ered in great men, and an endeavor to ascertain the distinctions 

 between these and symptoms of insanity. Among these symptoms 

 are hallucinations, to which the soundest of men have been found 

 more or less subject, over-exuberance of fancy, and self-abandon- 

 ment in the restless strife for some idea,l goal. In great artists 

 and scholars, on the one hand, and in the insane on the other, 

 there is a great, irresistible impulse which fills them to overflow- 

 ing and makes them forget all personal considerations. But while 

 in the former the restless compulsion to create, the hot aspiration 

 is the kernel of the highest and noblest perfection of man, in the 

 latter there is a morbid impulse which is usually directed to the 

 silliest things. Formerly such a state was called a monomania, 

 since this irresistible impulse seemed to be the only pathological 

 symptom ; but careful observation has shown that there is always 

 a more general psychical malady, usually the consequence of 

 arrested development. It is perfectly astonishing with what te- 



