672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to Luther — arc all examples of hallucinations which are entirely con- 

 sistent with reason, and are not justly indicative of insanity or mental 

 disease. They represent a habit of mind which naturally, under con- 

 ditions of concentrated attention, intensified in an age tolerant of all 

 forms of superstitions, " seeks for and creates, if need be, with or 

 without consciousness, an outward object as the cause of its feelings." 

 Luther, for example, saw with his " mind's eye " the image of the 

 devil, which, in that age of religious excitement and credulity, was 

 ever expectant in all minds, and generally present everywhere. " Hal- 

 lucinations were," says De Boismont, " in the whole social community, 

 not in individuals " ; and hence it was that under the dominion of a 

 general belief, however vague or irrational it may have been, the in- 

 dividual mind " demanded of imagination the realization of the phan- 

 tasms of its dreams ; and imagination, despite of the resistance of 

 reason, endowed them with form and substance." Herein is found a 

 distinguishing factor "between real insanity and the separate phe- 

 nomena of genius and moral exaltation." 



In further support of this opinion we may cite the hallucinations 

 of Loyola, when he heard celestial voices ; of Edward Irving, who re- 

 ceived the gift of prophecy and the " power of tongues " ; of Dr. 

 Johnson, when the voice of his dead mother came to him ; of Male- 

 branche, when the deep feelings of his soul were to him the audible 

 voice of Deity, and of Joan of Arc, who, under the guidance of 

 saints, led the French arms to victory. 



That genius "has its roots in a nervous organization of exceptional 

 delicacy," is undoubtedly true, but it does not necessarily follow that 

 the liability to mental discord and confusion is thereby increased, be- 

 cause this delicacy of brain-structure and its functions are admirably 

 adjusted, and the very perfection of the mechanism enables it to work 

 with the least possible friction or injury. 



Under certain conditions, however, we have eccentricities of 

 thought, feeling, and action, which indicate an unstable condition 

 of nerve-element ; but it does not follow that this instability neces- 

 sarily impairs the integrity of the mind ; much less does it imply that 

 " genius," more than the lower expressions of mental power, is nearer 

 the border-land of mental disease. I doubt not that permutations of 

 this unstable condition may occur which, by supplementing the 

 natural gifts of mind, cause a variety of individual traits. It may 

 give to the poet Campbell indecision and indolence ; make Carlyle 

 cross and pessimistic ; Byron proud, generous, and reckless ; Schlegel 

 foppish in his vanity ; Keats despondent ; Pope crafty and preten- 

 tious ; Swift satirical, avaricious, and irascible ; Chateaubriand ego- 

 tistic and vain ; Burns and Poe convivial and intemperate ; Eliot sen- 

 sitive and dependent ; Hawthorne shy and modest ; "Wordsworth 

 simple-hearted yet full of conceit ; and Ampere absent-minded and 

 unpractical. Thus might I show certain peculiarities which belong to 



