240 AN INTELLECTUAL MONSTROSITY. 



a flocculent precipitate from the same solution. The black matter 

 contains about 22 per cent, of carbon, nearly 60 per cent, of carbo- 

 nate of lime, and about 5 per cent, of other solid matter, which is 

 composed of oxide of iron, some silex, and a trace of copper. The 

 rest, viz., 13 per cent., appears to be water. The white matter 

 contains phosphate of lime, or bone earth, and carbonate of lime, 

 besides a dark substance left on the filter, which swells and burns 

 like animal fibre when placed on hot iron. 



AN INTELLECTUAL MONSTROSITY. 



By J. L. Levison. 



In designating anv person an intellectual monstrosity, the terms 

 would seem at first to be so contradictory, that I can fancy many of 

 the orthodox literati would ask what I mean by them ; and, previ- 

 ously to the explanation, suppose that we intend describing an 

 individual with very decided talent, but who is deficient in worldly 

 sense. Yet such is not altogether the kind of character I intend 

 sketching : and, in order to make peace with readers of all kinds, I 

 will candidly confess that I adopted the terms intellectual monstro- 

 sity, because they convey to my ideas the tangible representation of 

 just what I wish to treat of, without being under the necessity of 

 either a circumlocutory mode of expression or of useless and minute 

 descriptions. Besides, the terms convey in a forcible manner the 

 notions entertained upon the subject by the generality of mankind. 

 Still, the object of the present article would be misunderstood, un- 

 less I o-ive a more definite meaning, and explain that my definition 

 is something different from its strict and literal sense. I intend, 

 then, to express, by the words intellectual monstrosity, a being who 

 is generally regarded as a moral phenomenon — one of those extraor- 

 dinary personages who is looked upon with awe or derision by vul- 

 gar minds, and with admiration or envy by the more cultivated 

 classes. In short, an eccentric compound of wisdom and simplicity, 

 who, like many others, has received the title by common consent of 

 being a o-enius 1 Yet our intellectual monstrosity is of a different 

 species from the mad-cap erratic persons who shield themselves 



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