GENIUS AND INSANITY. 465 



In addition to these adverse forces, which have their origin in the 

 common conditions of the life of genius, there are others which, though 

 less constant, present themselves very frequently in co-operation with 

 the first. It has often been remarked that the man of decided origi- 

 nality of thought, being as it were one born out of due time, has to 

 bear the strain of production for a while uncheered by the smile of 

 recognition. And when there is great originality, not only in the 

 ideas, but in the form of expression, such recognition may come too 

 slowly to be of any remunerative value. Neglect or ridicule is the 

 form of greeting which the world has often given to the propounder of 

 a new truth ; and where, as frequently happens, the want of instant 

 recognition means the pressure of poverty, which chafes with unusual 

 severity the delicate fibers of sensitive men, we have a new and con- 

 siderable force added to the agencies which threaten to undermine 

 the not too stable edifice of the great man's mental and moral con- 

 stitution. Johnson, Lessing, Burns, Leopardi, and many another name, 

 will here occur to those familiar with the lives of modern men of 

 letters. 



In view of this combination of threatening agencies, one begins to 

 understand the many eloquent things which have been said about the 

 fatality of great gifts. Thus one finds a meaning in the definition of 

 poetic genius given by Lamartine when speaking of Byron " a vibra- 

 tion of the human fiber as strong as the heart of man can bear without 

 breaking." 



It is not meant here that even when all these destructive elements 

 are present a distinctly pathological condition of mind must neces- 

 sai'ily ensue. Their effect may be fully counteracted by other and 

 resisting agencies. Of these the two most important are bodily energy 

 and health on the one hand, and strength of will or character on the 

 other. Where these are both found in a high degree of perfection, as 

 in Goethe, we have a splendid example of healthy genius. On the 

 other hand, if either, and still more if both of these are wanting, we 

 have a state of things which is exceedingly likely to develop a dis- 

 tinctly pathological state of mind.* 



How, it may be asked, does it commonly fare with the world's 

 intellectual heroes with respect to these means of defense ? As to the 

 physical defense, it is known that a number of great men have had a 

 physique fairly adequate to the severe demands made on the nervous 

 organization. They were men of powerful frame, strong muscles, and 

 good digestion. But such robustness of bodily health seems by no 

 means the common rule. The number of puny and ill-formed men 

 who have achieved marvelous things in intellectual production is a 

 fact which has often been remarked on. So common an accompani- 

 ment of great intellectual exertion is defective digestion, that an in- 



* That is, quite apart from any inherited physical predisposition to nervous 



disease. 



vol. xxvii. 30 



