WILLIAM G. STEVENSON. ie 
on a subject which must be treated under the restrictions 
of modern definitions. We will, therefore, examine the 
question from the standpoint of more modern times, 
when the supernatural agency in insanity gives place to 
the deteriorating influences which unite it to other forms 
of nervous disease ; and genius becomes a product of an 
age, in the expansive growth of the human mind. 
That these extreme forms of mental expression are 
often associated, there is no doubt ; and‘that genius is, 
at times, shadowed by mental disease is a fact well 
known; but our interest centers in the inquiry, whether 
this relationship is such an essential one as to justify 
Dryden in asserting— 
““ Great wits are sure to madness near allied, 
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.” 
Or Shakespeare, when he says : 
‘« The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact.” 
In support of this essential union, Montaigne, Diderot, 
Paseal, Lamartine, and others, have subscribed their 
names, but in terms more general than specific, and with 
more rhetorical beauty than philosophic strength; while 
Moreau boldly affirms that genius is a nervous disease. 
Charles Lamb, himself at times oppressed with mental 
gloom, stands almost alone in defense of ‘‘ the sanity of 
true genius.”’ With this view Lam in accord, and, that 
the justification of this position may be seen, I desire to 
review the facts commonly cited against it. 
Sophocles—poet, statesman, commander—was obliged 
to make a defense against the charge of insanity, insti- 
tuted by ungrateful and avaricious children. He an- 
swered by reciting the tragedy of @dipus at Colonos, 
which he had just finished, and he thenasked the judges 
if the author of such a work could be regarded as mad. 
The reply was, ‘‘ No !’’ and he was acquitted. 
