GENIUS AND MENTAL DISEASE. 671 



tion, was " filled with enthusiasm, and discovered the foundations of a 

 marvelous science"; and, it may he that, during his profound medita- 

 tions, in which he " turned the eye of reason inward upon itself, and 

 tried to measure the value of his own beliefs," an idea became so 

 dominant that the sense of hearing responded to its impression, as if a 

 voice from without had called him " to pursue the truth." In no way, 

 however, did this simple and momentary hallucination interrupt the 

 great work of his life, and in no lawful way can it be interpreted as 

 an expression of a morbid mind. 



That Goethe once saw his own counterpart approach him I doubt 

 not, but that this false perception, this passing incongruity — a mere 

 incident of poetic revery when the mind, self-absorbed, wandered in 

 its fancy — should be classed as evidence of a pathological condition, 

 and made to bear witness against the healthfulness of Goethe's mind, 

 is an assumption extravagant and absurd. 



That Newton was once "decidedly insane," as some allege, is 

 doubtful ; and that he ever suffered from any mental disturbance 

 which justifies the inference that his genius was allied to madness, I 

 hesitate not to deny. Mr. Sully says, " The story of Newton's mad- 

 ness, which is given by a French biographer, and which is ably re- 

 futed by Sir David Brewster, may owe much of its piquancy to what 

 may be called the unconscious inventiveness of prejudice." 



The facts, as I gather them, point to a congestion of the brain — 

 which culminated in a brain-fever — the result of overwork under un- 

 favorable hygienic conditions. Newton himself refers to his illness in 

 a letter to Mr. Pepys, and again in a letter to Locke, wherein he men- 

 tions his loss of memory, and his sleepless nights. It is not strange 

 that his illness should excite the fears of his friends, not only for his 

 physical but for his future mental health. Mr. Pepys expressed his 

 anxiety to Mr. Millington, who replied that he had recently seen 

 Newton, who was then well, and that, although his illness had caused 

 " some small degree of melancholy, there is no reason to suspect it 

 hath at all touched his understanding." Huygens, a contemporary 

 scientist, says, in a letter to Leibnitz in 1G94, that Newton was ill for 

 about eighteen months with phrenitis or brain-fever, from which he 

 recovered by the use of medicines. With these data before us, it is a 

 misconception of physiological and pathological facts to assert that 

 Newton was insane ; and that there was a kinship between his mighty 

 genius and madness, is contradicted by the intellectual work which 

 has given immortality to his name. 



The star seen by Napoleon, which was to him an omen of success ; 

 the vision which came to Cromwell, and spoke the words prophetic of 

 his greatness ; the apparition which uttered the ominous words to 

 Brutus — " I am thy evil genius, thou wilt meet me at Phillipi ! " the 

 dreams and visions of Benvenuto Cellini ; the "trees like men walk- 

 ing," as seen by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the appearance of the devil 



