THE PHYSIOLOGY OF AUTHORSHIP. 103 



creative work by reason of their good working qualities because 

 they do not in general use artificial stimulants and irregular modes 

 of life to helj) their brains to wear out their bodies. They keep them- 

 selves broad awake in order to dream ! They seek to do imaginative 

 work, and take as models the lives of men who do unimaginative 

 work that is to say, precisely the opposite routine to that of men by 

 whom imaginative work is done. These prove negatively wliat the 

 examples of creative genius prove positively. If scholars toil late 

 into the early hours, it is to continue their day's work, not to begin 

 it. It is interest that chains them to the desk at midnight, not im- 

 pulse that calls them there. All philosophers have not always been 

 sober men ; but they have taken their indulgences as refreshments 

 and recreations as interruptions to work, and not as its necessary 

 accompaniments. If Balzac's may be taken as [the type of the artist's 

 life, Kant's may be taken as the type of the student's. The habits of 

 both are equally well known. Kant also gave a daily diimer-party ; 

 but when his guests were gone he took a walk in the country instead 

 of seeking broken slumbers in a state of hunger. He came home at 

 twilight, and read from candle-light till bedtime at ten. He rose 

 punctually at five, and, over one cup of tea and part of a pipe, laid 

 out his plan of woi-k for the day. At seven he lectured, and wrote 

 till dinner-time at about one. The regularity of his life was auto- 

 matic. It was that of Balzac save in fulfilling all the accepted con- 

 ditions of health early rising, early lying down, moderate daily work, 

 nightly rest, regular exercise, and a diet regulated with the care not 

 of a lunatic but of a physician. A cup of tea and half a pipe in the 

 morning cannot be looked upon as stimulants to a man in such perfect 

 health as Kant always enjoyed ; and, if they can be, let it be observed 

 that it was while engaged with these he thought about his work it 

 was his hour for what Campbell called his ''fuyning meditations." 

 He certainly used no other stimulant to work, in the common sense of 

 the word ; but even he illustrates, in another point, the need of the 

 mind for artificial conditions, however slight they may be, when en- 

 gaged in dreaming. During the blind-man's holiday between his 

 walk and candle-light he sat down to think in twilight fashion ; and, 

 while thus engaged, he always placed himself so that his eyes might 

 fall on a certain old tower. This old tower became so necessary to 

 his thoughts that, when some poplar-trees grew up and hid it from 

 his window, he found himself unable to think at all, until, at his 

 earnest request, the trees were cropped and the tower brought into 

 sight again. Kant's old tower recalls Bufibn's incapability of think- 

 ing to good purpose except in full di-ess and with his hair in such elab- 

 orate order that, by way of external stimulus to his brain, he had a 

 hair-dresser to interrupt his work twice, or, when very busy, thrice a 

 day. It is curious to note the touch of kindred between the imagina- 

 tive savant Bufibn and the learned artist Haydn, who could not work 



