410 A Century of Science 



to the class of Eccentric Literature, unless it 

 showed unmistakable symptoms of crankery, or the 

 buzzing of a bee in the author s bonnet. This rule 



has been strictly followed. One lot of books 



the Bacon-Shakespeare stuff which I intended to 

 put in this class, but forgot to do so because of 

 sore stress of work, stiU remain absurdly grouped 

 along with the books on Shakespeare written by 

 men in their senses. With this exception, the 

 class offers us a fairly comprehensive view of the 

 literature of cranks. 



Just where the line should be drawn between 

 sanity and crankery is not always easy to deter 

 mine, and must usually be left to soundness of judg 

 ment in each particular case, as with so many 

 other questions of all grades, from the supreme 

 court down to the kitchen. One of the most fre 

 quent traits of your crank is his megalomania, or 

 self-magnification. His intellectual equipment is 

 so slender that he cannot see wherein he is infe 

 rior to Descartes or Newton. Without enough 

 knowledge to place him in the sixth form of a 

 grammar school, he will assail the conclusions of 

 the greatest minds the world has seen, His mood 

 is belligerent ; since people will not take him at 

 his own valuation, he is apt to regard society as 

 engaged in a conspiracy to ignore and belittle him. 



