t/1- r> r THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY AN INQUIRY INTO THE RECORDS OF ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS AND THINKERS BY W. A. NEWMAN BORLAND What then ! Shall we sit idly down and say The night hath come ; it is no longer day ? The night hath not yet come : we are not quite Cut off from labor by the failing light ; Something remains for us to do or dare. Even the oldest trees some fruit may bear. For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress ; And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. Henry IV. Longfellow NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1908 ABE. I. WOLBABST, M, D, J5 Eaat 19th Street, N. I. Copyright, 1908, by THE CENTURY Co. Published September, 1908 THE t>E VINNE PHESb TO THE MATURE GENIUS WHICH HAS REVOLUTIONIZED THE WORLD A SR.L.WOLBABST,M.D. 105 But 18* Street, I. X. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE i THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS AND THINKERS 3 ii THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY . 23 HI UNUSUAL MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG . . , 39 iv THE ACME AND DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY 62 v WHAT THE WORLD MIGHT HAVE MISSED 86 vi GENIUS AND INSANITY 154 vu THE BRAIN OF GENIUS 190 TABLES vii THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY CHAPTER I THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS AND THINKERS IT is now over three years since the in- vestigation which has culminated in the developments here recorded was un- dertaken. It began in this wise. In conversation with Dr. Harris A. Slocum of Philadelphia on the tendency visi- bly increasing in this country of rele- gating the older and middle-aged men to the oblivion of an "innocuous desuetude" in order that the more progressive and aggressive young men might be given a 3 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY clear track in the rush to the front, the question suggested itself to the writer: What has been the age of the acme of mental activity as shown by the records of the famous men of modern times ? It was evident that in order to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion the scope of the investigation should be compre- hensive, since it was fully appreciated that a limited study could readily be so distorted as to prove anything the inves- tigator might prefer. Two elements in the investigation were, therefore, recog- nized at the very start to be most essen- tial; namely, a comprehensive view and a receptive mind, which would not pre- conclude and then institute a process that would demonstrate the accuracy of the conclusion. The study has been, ac- cordingly, one primarily designed for the writer's own information, based upon 4 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS the following problem: At what period of their lives did men of distinction do their best work, and when were the magna opera accomplished? Four hundred records of men famous in all lines of intellectual activity were most carefully compiled and analyzed. It was soon found that these records could conveniently be grouped into two classes more or less distinct, though not showing a clearly defined line of de- marcation. These groups were, con- cisely, the workers and the thinkers. A word of explanation is necessary. While it is true that all men whose records were included in the study are embraced in the broader signification of the thinking class, in a more restricted sense a division can be made. Thus, among the "thinkers" might be grouped all those whose intellectual activities 5 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY manifested themselves in processes of ratiocination, with the object in view of arriving at abstractions or metaphysical concepts or of drawing positive deduc- tions from a careful analytical study of large numbers of correlated facts. This class could perhaps be best typified by the philosophers or by the natural scien- tists. By the "workers" in this re- stricted meaning is meant that group of men whose intellectual activities culmi- nated in some practical and visible ap- plication of their lines of thought ; these could best be represented by inventors or by the warriors of the world. It will be noticed that the thinkers, pure and simple, must vastly outnumber those who have the ingenuity or who en- joy the opportunity of practically dem- onstrating their lines of thought. In a group of the "workers" would be found 6 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS actors, artists, chemists, and physicists, explorers, inventors, musical composers, physicians, surgeons, and warriors. A grouping of the "thinkers" would in- clude astronomers and mathematicians, divines and reformers, dramatists and playwrights, essayists, historians, jurists, naturalists, novelists, philosophers, polit- ical economists, poets, satirists, humor- ists, and statesmen. Merely to enumerate the names of these distinguished men of other days becomes an inspiration. Involuntarily we doff our hats, and with reverent mien note the procession as it passes before us: First the statesmen : Talleyrand, Lincoln, Washington, and Daniel Webster. Machiavelli, founder of one of the schools of modern diplomacy. The immortal bard of Avon. 7 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Robert Burns and Lord Byron. Erasmus, the philosophical reformer. Savonarola, the Florentine reformer and statesman. The satirists : Sterne, Rabelais, and Cervantes. Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer. Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest of natural philosophers. The novelists : Balzac, Hawthorne, Trollope, and Verne. The statesmen : Crispi and Garibaldi. Jean Paul Richter, greatest of German humorists. Poe, the mystic and poet. Arago, the celebrated astronomer and physi- cist. John Napier, the inventor of logarithms. The naturalists : Leidy, Agassiz, Buff on, and Cope. Charles Darwin, the eminent naturalist and originator of the modern theory of evolu- tion. Le Sage, the dramatist and novelist, author of "Gil Bias." Bohme, the father of German philosophy. The distinguished American divines: Tal- 8 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS mage, Jonathan Edwards, Henry Ward Beecher, and Phillips Brooks. Renan, the philologist and historian. Blackstone, chief of jurists. The novelists: Cooper, Charles Lover, and Thackeray. Leibnitz, the philosopher and mathematician. The great tragedians: Macready, Barrett, Booth, and Irving. Michelangelo, the greatest of known artists. The chemists: Priestley, Scheele, Lavoisier, and Liebig. Sir Richard Burton, explorer and translator of the. "Arabian Nights." Morse, the inventor of the telegraphic alpha- bet. The poets : Wordsworth, Southey, and Keats. George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends. Count Cavour, regenerator of Italy and one of the greatest of modern statesmen. Dion Boucicault, the playwright. The essayists: Addison and Sir Richard Steele, of "Tatler" and "Spectator" fame. Sue, the novelist, whose "Wandering Jew" is a marvel of fiction. 9 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Walt Whitman, the "good, gray poet." Francis Parkman, the dauntless, whose histo- ries were written under almost insuperable difficulties. Rousseau, the eminent philosopher and essay- ist. The historians: Freeman, Froude, Bancroft, and Hallam. Audubon, the ornithologist. Theophile Gautier, the essayist and novelist. The Grimm brothers, authors of the popular German fairy tales ; the beloved Hans Christian Andersen, the great Danish story-teller. Savigny, the founder of modern jurispru- dence. Samuel Pepys, without whose "Diary" the history of the court of Charles II could not have been written. The weighty philosophers: Bacon, Lotze, Kant, Spencer, and Schopenhauer. Turgot, the political economist, who has been pronounced one of the most massive and imposing figures of the eighteenth cen- tury; Adam Smith, greatest of political economists. 10 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS The poets: Longfellow, Tennyson, Milton, and Whittier. The reformers: Huss, Wyclif, Zwingli, and Knox. The immortal Samuel Butler. Bismarck, the "man of blood and iron" of Germany; the eloquent American states- men, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Albert Gallatin, John Hancock, and Richard Henry Lee; Thomas Jefferson, father of American democracy. The masters of painting: Correggio, del Sarto, Perugino, Rubens, Raphael, and Murillo ; the pictorial satirists : Cruikshank and Hogarth. The tragedians : Garrick, Forrest, and Kem- ble. Thomas Chatterton, the unfortunate boy- poet. Petrarch, founder of humanism and the in- augurator of the renaissance in Italy. George Whitefield, one of the most elegant of pulpit orators. Corneille, one of the greatest tragic poets of France, and Moliere and Racine, French dramatists. 11 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Ibsen, the "grand old man" of Norway. John Ruskin, the eminent art critic. The essayists : La Rochefoucauld, Montaigne, and Emerson; the genial George William Curtis, essayist and journalist; Thomas De Quincey, the English purist and essay- ist ; Matthew Arnold, the ethical poet and essayist. Washington Irving, novelist and historian. Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury. Cardinals Newman, Richelieu, Wolsey, and Mazarin, divines, essayists, and statesmen. The Hungarian statesman and patriot, Kos- suth. Marat, Mirabeau, Danton, and Robespierre of the French "Terror." Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution. The masters: Titian, Paul Veronese, Leo- nardo da Vinci, and Vandyke; Millet, the painter of peasant life. Christopher Columbus, chief of explorers; the African explorers, Du Chaillu, 'Speke, Livingstone, Stanley, and Mungo Park. The great musical composers: Bach, Verdi, Weber, and Richard Wagner. THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS The physicists : Dalton, Boyle, and Faraday. Galvani, the physiologist. The naval heroes : John Paul Jones and Lord Nelson. The Duke of Marlborough, victor of Blen- heim, and Lord Clive, founder of the em- pire of British India. The poets : Keble, Shelley, Cowper, Chaucer, and Spenser; Isaac Watts, the hymn- writer. Sir Robert Peel, premier of England and organizer of the modern police system. Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai. James Rennell, most celebrated of English geographers, and Karl Ritter, probably the greatest geographer of modern times. Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Meyerbeer, Chopin, and Liszt, most eminent of com- posers. Jenner, discoverer of vaccination, and Har- vey, discoverer of the 'circulation of the blood. The famous American statesmen: John C. Calhoun, John Adams, Henry Clay, and Stephen A. Douglas. Gladstone, England's "grand old man"; the 13 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY premiers, George Canning, John Bright, William Pitt, and Sir Robert Walpole ; the Earl of Beaconsfield, novelist and premier of England. Schiller, dramatist and poet. Rembrandt, the famous Dutch painter, known as the "Shakspere of Holland." Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer, historian, and courtier. The great generals: Sheridan, Sherman, Grant, and Robert E. Lee. Gay-Lussac, the physicist. The novelists: Dickens, Hugo, Bulwer Lyt- ton, Wilkie Collins, Blackmore, and Cha- teaubriand ; Scott, the poet and novelist. The astronomers : Galileo, Copernicus, Herschel, Kepler, and Biot. Dwight L. Moody, the evangelist and founder of Northfield Seminary. Horace Greeley, the American editor and journalist, founder of the New York "Tribune." The essayists : Charles Lamb, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Carlyle, Leigh Hunt, and James Russell Lowell. Napoleon Bonaparte, conqueror of Europe; THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the British Commonwealth. Littre, compiler of the best dictionary of any living language. The naturalists: Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, Huxley, Lacepede, Lamarck, and Baron Cuvier. John Bunyan, the most popular religious writer in the English language. Dean Stanley, the beloved prelate; Canon Farrar, Dean of Canterbury. Voltaire, the prince of deists and brilliant essayist. August Bockh, one of the greatest scholars that Germany has produced in modern times. The philosophers : Hobbes, Comte, Descartes, Schelling, Spinoza, Condillac, Condorcet, and Diderot. General Lew Wallace, soldier, statesman, and novelist. Saint-Simon, founder of French socialism. Von Baer, founder of the science of compara- tive embryology. Georg Ebers, the orientalist and novelist ; Du Maurier, the artist-novelist. 15 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Tyndall, the philosopher and physicist. The mathematicians: Euler, Lagrange, and D'Alembert. Turner, the most celebrated landscape-painter of the English school. Alexander Hamilton, the brilliant and la- mented American statesman; Gambetta, silver-tongued orator of France ; Baron von Bunsen, the German scholar and diplo- matist. Prescott, the eminent American historian. Robert Burton, author of the "Anatomy of Melancholy." Thomas Arnold, famous head-master of Rugby. The playwrights: Ben Jonson, Douglas Jer- rold, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Grote and Hume, philosophical historians ; Mommsen, the venerable German historian. The famous American statesmen: Blaine, John Hay, and James Monroe. Benjamin Franklin, the many-sided man, sci- entist, statesman, philosopher, diplomatist, patriot. William Penn, the Quaker essayist and founder of Pennsylvania. 16 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS The composers : Haydn, Handel, Schumann, Schubert, Gluck, and Gounod. Schliemann, the archaeologist. James Watt, inventor of the modern condens- ing steam-engine. Rudolf Virchow, pathologist, and exponent of the democracy of learning. The Duke of Wellington, victor of Waterloo. Sir Astley Cooper, the great London sur- geon. Sir Humphry Davy, the natural philosopher, and inventor of the miners' safety-lamp. The poets : Dante, Goethe, Robert Browning, Heine, De Musset, and Thomas Moore; Owen Meredith, the poet-statesman. Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Arch- bishop of Canterbury; Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Guizot, the venerable historian and states- man; William Lloyd Garrison, the great antislavery agitator. Thiers, President of the French Republic and "liberator of the territory." Dore, prince of illustrators. Sir John Franklin and Dr. Kane, Arctic ex- plorers. 2 17 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY The tragedian : Edmund Kean. Benjamin Rush, the great American physi- cian and statesman. Bessemer, inventor of the pneumatic process in the manufacture of steel. Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's ; Rossetti, the poet-painter ; Albrecht Diirer, best known by his engravings on copper. Joseph Jefferson, most famous of American comedians. The musical composers : Brahms, Spohr, Ros- sini, and Johann Strauss. The generals: Von Moltke and Sii Charles Napier. Holderlin, the exquisite German poet ; Beran- ger, the beloved French song-writer. Christopher Marlowe, the father of English tragedy and the creator of English blank verse. Emanuel Swedenborg, the profound dreamer of Sweden. Dean Swift, author of the famous "Gulliver's Travels." The statesmen: Charles James Fox, Boling- broke, and Warren Hastings. 18 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the upholder of church authority in the time of Charles I. La Fontaine, the fabulist. The inseparable Beaumont and Fletcher; Thomas Hood, the poet and humorist. Lyell and Hugh Miller, the geologists. Lavater, the great physiognomist. The historians : Von Ranke, Gibbon, Motley, Michelet, Dean Milman and Niebuhr. Max Muller, the eminent philologist. The essayists : J. G. Holland, Nathaniel Par- ker Willis, James Kirke Paulding, Isaac D'Israeli, and Baron Friedrich von Grimm. The painters : Botticelli and Constable. John Hunter, the great English physician. Corot, the famous landscape-painter, and "lyric poet of the Barbizon school," whose works have well been described as "painted music." George Stephenson, the "father of railways." The astronomers : Laplace and Leverrier. Thomas Chalmers, the doughty Scottish clergyman. The gifted Lamartine, poet, statesman, and historian. 19 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Lessing, the dramatist and essayist. James Boswell, the follower of Johnson. The lamented De Maupassant, the most per- fect master of the short story. The novelists: Daudet, Henry Fielding, Samuel Warren, Charles Lever, Charles Reade, Kingsley, and Dumas p&re; Bret Harte, the humorous poet and novelist. The philosophers: Locke, Hegel, Berkeley, Fichte, and John Stuart Mill. Boerhaave, one of the most celebrated physi- cians of modern times. The explorers : La Salle and Champlain. Zola, the novelist and defender of Dreyfus. The painters: Bouguereau, Reynolds, West, Landseer, Gainsborough, and Blake. The poets: Coleridge, Dryden, Goldsmith, Lanier, and Gray. The reformers : Calvin, Luther, and Melanch- thon. Burke, Sir Thomas More, and Lord Palmer- ston, able statesmen of England. George Romney, historical and portrait painter. The immortal Daniel Defoe of "Robinson Crusoe" fame. 20 THE WORLD'S CHIEF WORKERS The beloved Robert Louis Stevenson, poet, novelist, and optimist. Baron Humboldt, the traveler and naturalist ; Linnaeus, the botanist. Pasteur, the chemist and biologist, and dis- coverer of the cure for hydrophobia. The learned and gifted Walter Savage Lan- dor. The poets : Young, Pope, Pollok, and Thom- son. Samuel Richardson, inventor of the modern novel of domestic life and manners ; Dodg- son (Lewis Carroll), mathematician and winsome story-teller, whose nonsensical "Alice in Wonderland" has fascinated both old and young. The divines : Sydney Smith and Spurgeon. Lord Macaulay, historian, poet, and essayist. Velasquez, head of the Spanish school of painting. Sir Edwin Arnold, the poet and eminent Japanese scholar. William Cullen Bryant, the distinguished American poet and journalist. Montesquieu, philosophical historian. John Wesley, founder of Methodism. THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Tintoretto, one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school; Meissonier, the mili- tary and genre painter of France. Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, the most notable critic of our time. Here is a magnificent array of genius and mentality having stupendous cere- brational power, whose influence upon the thinking world has been inestimable. The lives of such men, reduced to sta- tistical records, will bear a close exam- ination, and the resulting deductions will incontrovertibly carry with them a certain intrinsic value. CHAPTER II THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY THE period of a man's life during which his mind asserts its sway and he determines his usefulness to his fel- low-men, the period in which he becomes a producer and not merely a consumer, varies largely, according to the tempera- ment, physical constitution, and mental inclination of the individual. Some realize much sooner than others the ob- ject of living. In many the inspiration of genius breaks through the shell at a very tender age, as is the case of the prodigies of the world in music, art, and poetry, who astonish mankind by evi- dences of mental virility that are vastly in advance of their years. In others the THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY process of mental development is slow or even retarded, while a sound physical basis is forming. This was true of many of the men who late in life became the profound thinkers and astute statesmen and diplomatists. In the light of ad- vanced medical education, and according to the teaching of modern physiologists and neurologists, the latter method of growth would appear the more desira- ble, though not so brilliant and fasci- nating when examined in the limelight of public criticism. The world goes wild over a youthful wonder of men- tality, but ignores the plodding genius who is compelled by sheer force of his matured mentality to command late in life the plaudits of his fellows. They both serve their time and generation: the genius of inspiration and emotion, and the genius of untiring effort. Both 24 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY have their place in the evolution of the race, and both bring material contribu- tions to the world's accumulation of accomplishment. In an investigation like that now on hand three questions arise at the outset, and these comprise the entire scope of the period of mental activity: At what age did a given individual begin to show evidences of mental activity along lines of original research? when did he ac- complish the greatest work of his life? and how long did his mind continue to functionate and produce in the chosen sphere of activity? Advancing from the individual to the various groups in the special lines of work, we next must as- certain the average ages for these groups and the total average age for all the indi- viduals studied at these three periods of their lives. 25 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY THE INITIAL AGE OF MENTAL ACTIVITY IN the first place, it is interesting and instructive to mark the beginning age of the mental activity of these men. By this is meant the age at which the man first began to manifest mental activity in the line or lines in which he subse- quently became famous. Let it be noted that before this date in most instances, but not invariably, the youths proved unmistakably that their mentality was developing in an unusual degree, and in many cases this activity was manifested at peculiarly precocious periods. The average initial age of the 400 rec- ords was twenty-four. It is suggestive that the workers began earlier than the thinkers, at twenty-two, while the thinkers' average stands at twenty-six. 26 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY The average, likewise, shows striking variation for the different classes or occupations. Thus, as might be antici- pated from the remarkable careers of many of the musical composers, these men began their life-work at the aver- age age of seventeen. The actors closely follow at eighteen, while war- riors, artists, divines, and jurists show an average initial age of twenty-two. Dramatists and playwrights follow at twenty -three, and poets, physicians, and surgeons, inventors, chemists, and phy- sicists, occupy the position of mental equilibrium, at the outset, at an average age of twenty-four. The naturalists average twenty-five; explorers, novel- ists, essayists, historians, astronomers, mathematicians, and statesmen gener- ally began to develop their respective lines of thought at twenty-six; the phi- 27 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY losophers at twenty-seven; the reform- ers at twenty-eight; and the satirists and humorists not until thirty-two years of age. When it is recalled that satire is a highly specialized literary form, most rare and difficult of attainment, this late primary development acquires a peculiar signification in a study of this kind. EVOLUTION OF THE MIND THESE interesting and suggestive fig- ures seem unmistakably to indicate a / sure and progressive mental evolution which may be represented somewhat, though imperfectly, in the following manner: From infancy through adoles- cence to the full maturity of the adult, the emotional side of the individual is at its highest. Reaching its acme at 28 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY maturity, it then begins to diminish in intensity, as it is overtopped by the higher mental elements. Thus, musi- cians, who, save artists, are probably more justly entitled to the appellation of genius than any other class of men, do much of their best work at a re- markably tender age. The imaginative, imitative, religious, adventurous, and belligerent elements of the mind are strongly developed in these plastic years. It becomes evident, therefore, that actors and preachers, explorers and soldiers, poets and dramatists, all sub- ject to the domination of the emotions, do excellent and masterful work in the early years of their lives. As the deeper and more rational elements of cerebra- tion are developed, these either end their life-work altogether or modify it uncon- sciously to meet the changed mental 29 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY conditions. Thus, many who began as poets abandoned that esthetic and beau- tiful field of adventure for the broader and richer scope afforded by fiction and other prose writing. Many of the sci- entists, philosophers, and statesmen showed no special aptitude until the emotional period of their lives had passed. Epic poets and musicians brought the experience of maturer years to act upon and aid the imaginative and emotional brain-cells of their younger days. The bitter wrongs and injustices that every observant life-time entails dampen the ardor of youth, and the speculative philosopher, the biting and cynical satirist, or the more kindly dis- posed and dry humorist, grows into be- ing. Thus, just as surely as there is a phy- sical and natural evolution of the being 30 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY and of the race, so there is an individual, a tribal or national, and a racial evolu- tion of the mind. Such a conclusion is inevitably forced upon us by a study such as this. He was a deep observer who divided a man's mental working life into four decades ; thus, from twenty to thirty bronze, thirty to forty silver, forty to fifty gold, and from fifty to sixty iron. Intellect and judgment are strongest in the average person between forty and sixty. It was Du Maurier who said: "I think that the best years in a man's life are after he is forty. A man at forty has ceased to hunt the moon." Then, as an afterthought, he says: "I would add that in order to en- joy life after forty, it is perhaps neces- sary to have achieved, before reaching that age, at least some success." 31 IS PRECOCITY A SIGN OF DEGENERACY? IN the light of the foregoing, it becomes evident that precocity is not always a thing to be desired. Indeed, it may, just as surely as a prematurely ripened fruit indicates decay and early death, mean an early degeneration and loss of the mental faculties. By many biolo- gists it is considered an expression of premature senility. Few, if any, of the precocious children rise above the aver- age in adult life, and the tendency rather is to fall below it. The explana- tion is largely to be found in the fact that during these tender years the brain is immature both in substance and form, and any unusual strain placed upon the delicate and plastic organ must be at the expense of its ultimate power. 32 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY These children are often of the scrof- ulous diathesis, and present certain well-known physical traits. Their com- plexion is clear and at times beautifully fair, the eyes blue and the hair golden. A writer in one of the scientific papers speaks of their mental condition in this way: "These children are delicately sensitive to mental impressions, and alive to the conversation of persons much older than they." The unwonted brilliancy continues until the age of puberty when the children begin to fail mentally and physically and frequently fall victims to tuberculosis. As Lombroso has indicated, many of the men of genius were subjects of degen- eracy, and this statement is made because of the well-known stigmata or marks of degeneracy which have been present in them. It must be understood, however, 3 33 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY that any individual of great mentality, as well as those of mediocre ability, may present one or two degenerate marks without in any sense proving, for his case, the presence of a degenerate mind. There is a period of antenatal growth known to scientists as the senile period, embracing the fourth and fifth months of prenatal existence. It has been found that a slight arrest of development at this period is characteristic of the class of beings known as degenerates, and precocity is recognized as one of the ex- pressions of this developmental defect. Relief de la Bretonne, who composed at fourteen a poem on his first twelve loves, is a remarkable instance of this form of degenerate precocity. "A wit of five is a fool of twenty," is an adage founded upon the popular appreciation of this unpleasant truth. 34 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY THE MARKS OR STIGMATA OF DEGENERACY THERE are, then, certain physical pecul- iarities that are almost invariably pres- ent in decadent men and races. Thus, while the hardy people of the North, whose physical star may be regarded as in the ascendency, are generally tall and athletic, the decadent races, includ- ing many of the Latin stock, are char- acterized by shortness of stature and stockiness of build. Runts these people are, and this general undevelopment comprises a well-recognized stigma of degeneracy. It is likewise exceptional to find an unusually short nose, such as that possessed by Darwin and Socrates, among men of intellect. Nasal abbre- viation is one of the well-known signs of degeneracy, as is also the sessile or otherwise misshapen ear, the sugar-loaf skull, the close-set eyes, and other phy- siognomic irregularities, including the cretinoid face. The latter, strange to relate, has been noted in certain men of remarkable genius, including Darwin and Carlyle, Rembrandt, Pope, and Socrates. Other physical traits char- acteristic of individuals of degenerate taint are marked emaciation, facial pallor, stuttering, and stammering, in- fantile and adolescent sickliness, left- handedness, sterility, and certain mental and nervous diseases, more particular mention of which will be made in an- other chapter. I wish to emphasize at this point the assertion that not every individual who chances to possess one of the above men- tioned physical peculiarities is to be im- 36 THE PERIOD OF MENTAL ACTIVITY mediately stamped as a degenerate. It is only when there is a combination of two or more of these traits, especially if this combination has been noted as a family peculiarity, that the suspicion will be awakened, and this may then be confirmed and the condition established by close and careful investigation. It is probable that all of these degenerate geniuses manifested unusual mental de- velopment in early childhood. Nevertheless, it stands to reason that not every instance of unusual childish brilliancy is dependent upon a degen- erate state of mind. There is a pre- cocity due to parental influence and unconscious infantile imitation. This we may designate as the environmental precocity, a perfectly normal condition, but one which involves close parental supervision in order to maintain the 37 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY mental and judicial balance, and thereby avoid a brain-tire with serious and even permanent intellectual impairment. Properly guided and fostered through the plastic and impressional period of tutelage, these young men will be di- rected into the channels of life-work for which they are best designed. They will thereby be thoroughly prepared for the true period of productiveness in in- tellectual lines, which extends not infre- quently well beyond that absurdity which has been designated as the "dead-line of fifty." It will not be in- appropriate at this point to call atten- tion to some of these early indications of mental activity on the part of the young not subject to the precocity of degen- eracy. 38 CHAPTER III UNUSUAL MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG THE astounding array of facts that have been grouped together has been collected from literature after a most thorough search and investigation (wherever this was found to be possi- ble) as to the authenticity of the state- ments, and they are presented without other words of explanation or apology. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE YOUNG IN MUSIC As has already been intimated, the poets, musicians, artists, and soldiers, repre- senting the true geniuses of the world, 39 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY and those in whom the imaginative and impulsive elements are the strongest, have distinguished themselves early in life. This is eminently true of the musicians, whose records are, in this re- spect, truly marvelous. Thus, Mozart, when only three years of age, shared the harpsichord lessons of his sister Maria, who was eight years old. At four he played minuets and composed little pieces. He performed in public for the first time when five years old. At eight he played before the English royalty, made his first attempt at the composi- tion of a symphony, published his third set of sonatas, and wrote "God is our Refuge," an anthem for four voices. At ten he first essayed the oratorio; at eleven he composed an opera bouffe, "La Finta Semplice" ; at fourteen, com- posed the music for the opera, "Mitri- 40 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG date, Re di Ponto" ; at fifteen wrote the serenata, "Ascanio in Alba"; at sixteen, the operas, "II Sogno di Scipione" and "Lucio Silla," both of which were bril- liant successes; and at nineteen, the opera, "La Finta Giardiniera." Meyerbeer was an excellent pianist at five; at seven played Mozart's concerto in D minor in public ; at ten had written an opera, "Jephthas Geliibde," and at thirteen produced his second opera, "Wirth und Gast." At six Eichhorn and Eybler gave public concerts, and Spohr at the same age took the leading part in Kalkbrenner's trios; at nineteen he printed his first violin concerto. Handel showed his musical talent at a very early age. At eight his playing at- tracted the attention of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenf els ; in his twelfth year he made his debut as a virtuoso at the 41 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY court of Berlin ; at thirteen he composed a mass; at seventeen wrote "Florinde" and "Nero"; and at nineteen was a theater director. At the age of nine Liszt displayed great musical ability; in his eleventh year he played before enthusiastic audiences in Vienna ; and at fourteen he wrote the operetta, "Don Sancho." Mendelssohn first played in public at nine, and at eleven he began to compose with astonishing rapidity. At that age he wrote his cantata, "In riihrend feier- lichen Tonen," and produced nearly sixty movements, including songs, pianoforte sonatas, a trio for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, a sonata for violin and pianoforte, pieces for the organ, and a little dramatic piece in three scenes. At twelve he wrote five symphonies for stringed instruments, MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG each in three movements; motets for four voices; an opera in one act "Sol- datenliebschaft" ; another, "Die beiden Padagogen" ; part of a third, "Die wan- dernde Comodianten" ; and an immense quantity of other music of various kinds. At thirteen he produced an opera in three acts "Die beiden Neffen, oder der Onkel aus Boston"; a pianoforte concerto; and an immense amount of other music. At fifteen he composed his fine symphony in C minor, a quartet in B minor, and a pianoforte sestet. At sixteen he wrote a "Kyrie" for five voices; his pianoforte capriccio in F sharp minor; and an opera in two acts, "Die Hochzeit des Camacho," a work of considerable importance. Before he was eighteen he had completed his famous overture to Shakspere's "Mid- summer Night's Dream." Here was a THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY remarkable instance of precocious pro- ductiveness. Verdi, when only ten, was appointed organist at Le Roncole, and at fifteen wrote his first symphony. Rossini sang solos in church at ten; at thirteen ap- peared in the opera house as Adolfo in Paer's "Camilla," and at eighteen pro- duced at Venice his first opera, "La Cambiale di Matrimonio." Weber at twelve published a set of "Six Fugh- etti"; at thirteen wrote "Variations for the Pianoforte" and an opera, "The Power of Love and Wine." When he was fourteen, his opera, "The Wood- Maiden," was publicly presented ; at sev- enteen he published his third opera, "Peter Schmoll and His Neighbor"; and at eighteen he was appointed con- ductor of opera at Breslau. Cherubini awoke popular enthusiasm with a mass 44 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG at thirteen. Schubert began writing music at thirteen, and when eighteen composed two symphonies, five operas, and no less than one hundred and thirty-seven songs, besides a multitude of other important pieces. At seventeen Wagner published his first important composition, the over- ture in B flat, and at twenty his first symphony was performed. Brahms at the age of twenty had written a string quartet, the first pianoforte sonata, the scherzo in E flat minor, and a group of songs, including the dramatic "Liebes- treu." It is a truth pregnant with sug- gestion that Beethoven, that prince of musicians, who occupies in music the place held by Shakspere in poetry, did not compose anything entitled to men- tion until after he had reached his twenty-fifth birthday. 45 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY THE MEN OF WAR THE bellicose vein of youth has from time immemorial produced many of the famous fighters of the world, who have turned and overturned the world, and repeatedly altered its geography. The fighting strain, once established, is hard to overcome, however, and though the young have distinguished themselves in war, as will be seen directly, they cannot usurp to themselves all the trophies of Mars. Still, their record of achievement forms no mean page in the history of the world. At sixteen Henry IV of France was at the head of the Huguenot army, at nineteen he became King of Navarre, and before the age of forty-four he over- threw his enemies and became King of France. Scipio Africanus the Elder 46 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG distinguished himself at the battle of Ticinus at the age of sixteen, and at twenty-nine overthrew the power of Carthage at Zama. Alexander the Great defeated the celebrated Theban band at Chasronea before he had at- tained the age of eighteen, ascended the throne at twenty, had conquered the world at twenty-five, and died at thirty- two. Charles XII completed his first campaign against Denmark at eighteen, overthrew 80,000 Russians at Narva be- fore nineteen, conquered Poland and Saxony at twenty-four, and died at thirty-six. Peter the Great of Russia was proclaimed Czar at ten years of age, organized a large army at twenty, won the victory of Embach at thirty, and founded St. Petersburg at thirty-one. At the age of twenty-one, Eugene of Savoy was colonel, at twenty-four he 47 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY was lieutenant field-marshal, and shortly after general field -marshal ; at thirty- four he won the battle of Zenta, and at forty-one cooperated with Marlborough at Blenheim. Conde defeated the Span- iards at Rocroi at twenty -two, and won all his military fame before the age of twenty-five. Julius Caesar commanded a fleet before Mitylene, and distin- guished himself before the age of twenty-two; he completed his first war in Spain, and was made a consul before the age of forty. Philip of Macedon ascended the throne at twenty-two and was the conqueror of. Greece at forty- five. Lord Clive distinguished himself at twenty-two, attained his greatest fame at thirty-five, and had founded the British Empire in India by forty. Na- poleon was a major at twenty -four, gen- eral of brigade at twenty-five, and 48 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG commander-in-chief of the army of Italy at twenty-six. He achieved all his victo- ries and was finally overthrown before the age of forty-four. Saxe was a marechal-de-camp at twenty-four, and marshal of France at forty-four. Vau- ban, the great engineer, had conducted several sieges at twenty-five, and was marechal-de-camp at forty-three. Char- lemagne was crowned king at twenty- six, was master of France and the larger part of Germany at twenty-nine, placed on his head the iron crown of Italy at thirty -two, and conquered Spain at thirty-six. Hannibal was made eom- mander-in-chief of the Carthaginian army in Spain at twenty-six, and had won all his great battles in Italy, conclud- ing with Cannae, at thirty-one. Frederick the Great ascended the throne at twenty- eight; terminated the first Silesian war 4 49 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY at thirty, and the second at thirty -three ; and ten years later, with a population of only five hundred thousand, he tri- umphed over a league of more than one hundred millions of people. Mon- tecuculi, at the age of thirty-one, with two thousand horse attacked ten thousand Swedes, and captured all their baggage and artillery; at thirty -two he won the victory of Triebel. Wolfe was conqueror of Quebec at thirty-two, and Turenne, passing through the grades of captain, colonel, major-general and lieutenant-general, became a marshal of France at thirty-two, and won all his distinction before forty. Pizarro com- pleted the conquest of Peru at thirty-five and died at forty, while Cortez effected the conquest of Mexico and completed his military career before the age of thirty-six. At thirty-six Scipio Afri- 50 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG canus the Younger had completed the destruction of Carthage. Genghis Khan had achieved many of his victories and became emperor of the Mongols at forty, and Gonsalvo de Cordova achieved a great reputation and was made commander-in-chief of the army of Italy at forty-one. It is a curious fact that the three great wars of recent times were fought largely by older generals. Some one has gone to the trouble to compile the ages of these officers, and with interesting re- sults: Thus, in 1861, the ages of some of the Union commanders in the great Civil War were: Grant, 39; Sherman, 41 ; Sheridan, 30 ; McClellan, 35 ; Rose- crans, 42 ; Thomas, 45 ; Buell, 43 ; Han- cock, 37; Meade, 46; McDowell, 43; Pope, 38. Among the Confederates, Lee was 55; Bragg, 46; Jackson, 37; 51 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Hood, 30; Early, 43; Longstreet, 40; Beauregard, 45; Stuart, 28; Hill, 36; Buckner, 37. The Franco-Prussian War was fought largely by old generals. Von Moltke was 70 and Von Steinmetz was 74. The triumphs of the recent Russo-Japanese conflict were those of old men. Marquis Oyama was 62; Nodzu, 63 ; Kuroki, 60 ; Oku, 58 ; Nogi, 55; Nishi, 58; Kodama, 52; and Fu- shimi, 46. PRECOCITY AMONG ARTISTS, POETS, AND OTHERS EVIDENCES of environmental precocity have been noted in other lines of life. Thus, Visconti was a marvel of intelli- gence at sixteen months, and preached at six years. Horace Greeley, before he was two years old, gave evidence of re- 52 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG markable precocity; he had learned his letters before he could talk plainly, and at six had read the Bible through. Gas- sendi preached at four, and Mirabeau at three. The latter published books at ten. John Stuart Mill learned the Greek alphabet at three; by eight he had read much Greek; at eight he learned Latin; at twelve began a thor- ough study of scholastic logic; and at thirteen began the study of political economy. Wren invented an astronom- ical instrument and dedicated it in Latin to his father when only four years of age. Claude Joseph Vernet drew in crayons at four, and was celebrated as a painter at twenty. Pico della Miran- dola in his childhood knew Latin, Greek, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic. G. Wetton could translate Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at five, and at ten knew 53 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic. Isaac Watts began the study of the classics in his fifth year, and at seven or eight composed some of his devotional pieces. Corot from childhood demonstrated that he was a born artist. Landseer in his fifth year drew fairly well, and excel- lently at eight years of age. At ten he was an admirable draftsman, and at thirteen he drew a majestic St. Bernard dog so finely that his brother Thomas engraved and published the work. Bul- wer Lytton the novelist wrote ballads at five years of age, and at fifteen pub- lished "Ismael, an Oriental Tale, with other Poems." Scott at the age of six defined himself as a "virtuoso"; at ten he was a connoisseur in various read- ings. Dean Alford at six wrote a little manuscript volume, "The Travels of St. Paul"; before eight he had penned 54 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG a collection of Latin odes in miniature; at nine he had compiled a compendious "History of the Jews," and before ten he had produced a series of terse ser- mons. Wieland at seven knew Latin, meditated an epic at thirteen, and pub- lished a poem at sixteen. At seven Cope made drawings of jellyfish and other marine fauna which he had seen on a voyage to Boston. Kotzebue at- tempted comedies at seven, and wrote his first tragedy at eighteen. Reynolds at eight made a fine drawing of his school-house, and Leibnitz at the same age taught himself Latin, and at twelve had begun Greek. Macaulay at eight had written a "Compendium of Uni- versal History" and a romance in three cantos "The Battle of Cheviot"; at ten he wrote a long poem on the his- tory of Olaus Magnus, and "Fingal," a 55 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY poem in twelve books of blank verse. Dante composed a sonnet to Beatrice at nine, and Goethe wrote several lan- guages before the age of ten. Metas- tasio improvised at ten; and Robert Browning, while still a youth, acquired the triple reputation of poet, musician, and modeler. Edwin Forrest when scarcely eleven years old formed a Thes- pian society, and Gainsborough at ten had sketched every fine tree and pictur- esque cottage near Sudbury. Lope de Vega Carpio wrote poems at twelve, and at the same age Byron, Pope, and Tennyson began their work. Pope's "Ode on Solitude" appeared at this age, and his "Pastorals" were published at sixteen. At twelve Tennyson wrote an epic of six thousand lines, and at four- teen a drama in blank verse of perfect meter. Calderon published his "Chariot 56 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG of Heaven" at thirteen; and Ascoli, a work in Wallachian and Trioulian dia- lects. Hans Christian Andersen, before his fourteenth year, had written several tragedies and poems, including the "Dying Child." Raphael was re- nowned at fourteen; Fenelon preached an excellent sermon at fifteen; and at the same age Victor Hugo wrote "Irta- mene." At sixteen Moore translated "Anacreon," and Lamennais wrote the "Words of a Believer." Spenser pub- lished verse at sixteen and seventeen ; at eighteen Albert Gallatin was clear- minded, sober, and practical; at the same age Lessing wrote a comedy, "Der junge Gelehrte"; Jerrold, his first comedy, "More Frightened than Hurt" ; and Byron, his "Hours of Idleness." Bryant at nineteen wrote his celebrated "Thanatopsis," and Gautier his "Al- 57 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY berta" and other poems. Galileo from his earliest childhood was remarkable for intellectual aptitude and mechanical invention. At nineteen he discovered the isochronism of the pendulum in the cathedral at Pisa, and fifty years later turned this to account in the construc- tion of an astronomical clock. Before the age of twenty, Hugo had published "Hans of Iceland" and his first volume of "Odes and Ballads." THE PHILOSOPHERS THERE is a danger here, capable of be- coming a bone of contention and a rock of offense, that as fair and impartial stu- dents of the human mind we must recog- nize and avoid. These remarkable state- ments that must astound us and arouse a wave of enthusiasm, admiration, and 58 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG respect, represent precocious beginnings only or in large part, and must not be confounded with the true life-work of the persons. Professor Wallin of Princeton and others are eminently cor- rect when they call attention to the fact that Comte and Pascal, Kant and Schelling, Hume, Helmholtz, Schopen- hauer, Bacon, and many others of the school of philosophers, were thinkers at unusually tender years. The work done then, however, was not their life-work, but only the faint dawning that indi- cated the brilliant day that was to follow. Thus, while Bacon may have conceived his "Novum Organum" at fif- teen, it was not until the ripe age of fifty-nine that he gave it to the printers. While Kant, the greatest of all criticists, wrote his "Estimate of Living Force" at twenty-three, he published his "Cri- 59 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY tique of Pure Reason" at fifty-seven. Schelling began writing as a boy of seventeen, and at twenty-five published his "System of Transcendental Ideal- ism," one of the most finished and satis- factory of his works ; but it was not until after his death at seventy-nine that his substantial and weighty "Philosophy of Mythology and Revelation" was given to the world. Helmholtz at twenty-six wrote his "Kraft," the most important essay in natural science for centuries, but what of his magnificent work of the next quarter of a century? It is easy to advance arguments to prove the accu- racy of any theory, but a study of the mentality of a given person requires a comprehensive review of all his work. It remains true, therefore, that beyond being suggestive of richness to come, these early beginnings do not indicate 60 MENTAL ACTIVITY IN THE YOUNG' the acme of mental ability. This is pres- ent only during the years in which the masterwork of the person is being ac- complished. It is essential, accordingly, to find the age of the performance of the magnum opus, in order to affirm when a man is at his highest value to his fellows. 61 CHAPTER IV THE ACME AND DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY HAVING in this manner disposed of the initial age of mental activity, and having reviewed the remarkable performances of the prodigies who have astounded and delighted their fellow- men and who have wonderfully helped in the mental development of the world, we reach what is probably the most in- teresting phase of the subject. When is an individual mind most useful to the world, and how long does it, as a rule, maintain the high standard to which it has aspired? Again, advancing from the individual to the various groups of 62 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY workers and thinkers, what is the average age of masterful production for these men of mentality, and what the average age for all the groups studied as a whole? THE AGE OF THE MASTERPIECE THE summum bonum of a man's life who shall say when or what it is in any given case? It becomes almost a work of supererogation to attempt to desig- nate any single act or performance as the one most valuable in any man's ca- reer. Reduced to the ultimate, it be- comes, after all, only the expression of an individual opinion, save in those striking instances in which by general consent a certain achievement is recog- nized as the man's greatest work. No one would deny that in "Paradise Lost" THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Milton attained the highest expression of his mentality, that Wellington achieved his greatest fame when he won the field of Waterloo, that Bacon's "Novum Organum" is his greatest ac- complishment, and that "Don Quixote" exceeded anything else that Cervantes ever did. In other life-records one act may appear equal to another at differ- ent stages in the man's development; or to one observer the influence of one deed may far outweigh that of another, and contrariwise. This difficulty has been exceedingly hard to overcome, and without any attempt at dogmatism, but with the earnest desire to ascertain the truth as far as may be possible, has the decision been made in the disputable records. Having been arranged in this man- ner, the records give an average age of 64 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY fifty for the performance of the master- work. For the workers the average age is forty-seven, and for the thinkers fifty- two. Chemists and physicists average the youngest at forty-one; dramatists and playwrights, poets and inventors, follow at forty-four; novelists give an average of forty-six ; explorers and war- riors, forty-seven; musical composers and actors, forty-eight; artists and divines occupy the position of equi- librium at fifty ; essayists and reformers stand at fifty-one; physicians and sur- geons line up with the statesmen at fifty -two; philosophers give an average of fifty-four; astronomers and mathe- maticians, satirists and humorists, reach fifty-six; historians, fifty-seven; and naturalists and jurists, fifty-eight. As may be noted, there is a rearrangement of the order at this time, but the think- 6 65 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY ers, as before, and as would naturally be expected, attain their full maturity at a later period than the workers. Interesting and unexpected as it may be, even this average age of fifty is mis- leading ; for it must be remembered that the four hundred lives that have been analyzed included many that were snuffed out prematurely 1?y accident, murder, suicide, and the untimely tak- ing off by disease. Many of these men, as Byron, Shelley, Keats, Poe, Mungo Park, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Chatterton (who committed suicide when but eighteen years of age ) completed their life-works before the age of forty had been reached. It is safe to conclude that had these men rounded out lifetimes of fifty, sixty, or seventy years, as they had every right to anticipate and expect, they would have 66 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY done even better work than that already accomplished. Would Byron at thirty- five with the completion of "Don Juan" have written his greatest poem even had he been permitted to attain the statutory age of seventy? Would Poe at thirty- six with his "Raven" and weird tales have reached the acme of a life that might have spread out to sixty years? Would Christopher Marlowe, who was but twenty -nine years old when slain by a drunken brawler, never have done anything greater than he had accom- plished up to that time? It stands to reason that these men had only begun to show the wonderful possibilities of their minds, and had they been permit- ted to live longer doubtless still greater and more brilliant achievements of men- tality would have been placed to their credit. It is probable that then the 67 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY average age of the masterpiece would be nearer sixty than fifty. However, this is but supposition, and the facts as ascertained must stand. The corollary is evident. Provided health and optimism remain, the man of fifty can command success as readily as the man of thirty. Health plus optim- ism read the secret of success; the one God-given, the other inborn, also, but capable of cultivation to the point of enthusiasm. THE DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY A LINE of mental activity, once begun may continue indefinitely, its duration being dependent upon a number of cor- related conditions, such as the state of health, opportunity, accident, and ambi- tion. In the four-hundred records com- 68 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY prised in the present study, the average duration of the mental process was forty years. For the thinkers it was thirty- nine years, and for the workers forty- one. This only confirms the natural inference, since the thinkers generally develop later in life. The only reason why there is not a greater difference is that a considerable number of the think- ers prolonged their mental labors, and most effectively, far beyond the usual limit of productive cerebration. The duration is the shortest for poets and satirists and humorists, being only thirty-three years. Explorers, reform- ers, novelists, dramatists, and play- wrights show a duration of thirty-five years; warriors, chemists, physicists, and philosophers, thirty-seven years; statesmen, thirty-eight years; essayists, forty years; musical composers, forty- 69 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY one years; actors and artists, forty-two years; historians and divines, forty- three years; jurists, forty-four years; naturalists, forty-five years; physicians and surgeons, forty-six years; astrono- mers and mathematicians, forty-seven years ; and inventors, forty-nine years. Thirty-five per cent, of the men ceased their mental activity in the seventh decade; 221/2 per cent, in the eighth; 20^4 per cent, in the sixth; 1014 per cent, in the fifth; 6 per cent, in the ninth ; 4% per cent, in the fourth. One man, Chatterton, ended his career in the second decade; three in the tenth dec- ade; and five in the third. Seventy- eight and a quarter per cent, closed their life-work between fifty and eighty years of age, and 85 per cent, after the fiftieth year. While in the vast majority of cases 70 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY declining physical and mental ability progressed pari passu to the cessation of life, there loom up amid the general wreck of the bodily and cerebral powers some striking instances of remarkable mental vitality and virility, standing out, like beacon-lights of hope, far be- yond the period of normal decay. These mental heroes counterbalance the achievements of the young, already mentioned, if not in numbers, truly in productive value and influence upon the culture and welfare of the race. No greater inspiration can be found in all the records of life-work than in a review of these achievements of old age. A GROUP OF TITANS THUS Bockh, the "baby" member of the group, at seventy published one of 71 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY the greatest of his works, "Zur Ge- schichte der Mondcyclen der Hellenen." Between the ages of seventy and eighty- three, Commodore Vanderbilt increased the mileage of his road from 120 to 10,000 and added about one hundred millions to his fortune. Grote, in his seventy-first year, began his work on "Aristotle." At this time he writes: "My power of doing work is sadly diminished as to quantity, but as to quality (both perspicacity, memory, and suggestive association bringing up new communications), I am sure that my intellect is as good as it ever was." He died in his seventy-seventh year, leav- ing "Aristotle" unfinished. At seventy- two, Handel, blind for the last six years of his life, composed his oratorio, "Tri- umph of Time and Truth," and died at seventy-four, working until the last. 72 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY Eight days before his death he played the organ at a performance of his "Mes- siah." At the same age Meyerbeer pro- duced his greatest opera, "L'Africaine," Samuel Johnson published the best of his works, "Lives of the Poets," and Littre completed his greatest of all dic- tionaries. Wordsworth was appointed to the laureateship at seventy -three, and lived to see his eightieth birthday. George Buchanan, the stout old Scotch- man, wrote his "De Jure Regni" in de- fense of popular rights at seventy -three, and lived four years longer. Galileo at seventy-three made his last telescopic discovery that of the diurnal and monthly librations of the moon. At seventy-four, Kant wrote his "Anthro- pology," the "Metaphysics of Ethics," and the "Strife of the Faculties," and Thiers helped to establish the French 73 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY republic and became President, holding that exalted office for two years. Tinto- retto at the same age painted his crown- ing production, the vast "Paradise," a canvas seventy-four feet by thirty. Verdi, when seventy-four, produced his masterpiece, "Otello," which is thought to be an immense advance over anything he had yet written, and in his eightieth year wrote "Falstaff," which was as brilliant a work as "Otello." When eighty-five he wrote his "Ave Maria," "Laudi alia Virgine," "Stabat Mater," and "Te Deum," all wonderfully beau- tiful. Holmes at seventy-four pub- lished his medical essays, and "Pages from an Old Volume of Life"; at seventy-five wrote his essay on Emer- son; at seventy-six published "A Mortal Antipathy" and "The New Portfolio"; at seventy -eight wrote "Our Hundred 74 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY Days in Europe"; and at seventy-nine published "Over the Tea-Cups," dying at the ripe old age of eighty-five. Long- fellow at seventy-five wrote his impos- ing meditation "Hermes Trismegistus" and the beautiful "Bells of San Bias." At the same age Isaac D'Israeli pub- lished his "Amenities of Literature," a three-volume work, and that notwith- standing total blindness for three years preceding. At seventy-five Henry Clay was still a leader in the land, Hallam published his "Literary Essays and Characters," Metternich was driven from power, Bismarck was forced from the Chancellorship by the German Em- peror, Crispi assumed the Premiership of Italy, and Allen G. Thurman was nominated for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. Hugo at seventy-five wrote "History of a Crime" ; at seventy- 75 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY seven published "Le Pape" ; at seventy- eight, "L'Ane"; at seventy-nine, "Les Quatre Vents de 1'Esprit"; and at eighty, "Torquemada." Lamartine at seventy-six wrote a novel, "Fior d'Aliza." Washington Irving lived to be seventy-six, and wrote his "Life of Washington" in his last years. Peru- gino at seventy-six painted the walls of the Church of Castello di Fontignano, and Humboldt postponed until his seventy-sixth year the beginning of the crowning task of his life, the prepara- tion of the "Kosmos," which he success- fully completed in his ninetieth year. Biot at seventy-seven prepared an enlarged edition of his "Physical Astron- omy," which he completed at eighty- three, living five years longer. Jacob Grimm died at seventy-eight, working to the last, and Laplace, dying at the 76 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY same age, said with his last breath: "What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense." Lamarck at seventy-eight completed his greatest zoological work, "The Natural History of Invertebrates," and lived until eighty-five years of age. Whittier at seventy-nine published "Poems of Na- ture" and "St. Gregory's Guest." Wil- liam Cullen Bryant, when seventy-five, published his "Letters from Spain and Other Countries" and "Letters from the East" ; when seventy-seven he published his brilliant translations of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey"; at seventy-nine, a volume of "Orations and Addresses," and was active until his death from heat- exhaustion when eighty-four years old. Browning wrote with uhdiminished vigor until his death at seventy-seven. When seventy-five he published "Par- 77 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY leyings with Certain People," and "Aso- lando" appeared shortly before the close of his life. Joseph Jefferson, the be- loved American comedian, was as ef- fective in all his roles when seventy-five as when at the height of his physical power. THE OCTOGENARIANS WHAT shall we say of the octogenarians and of those who were older? As is well known, Cato at this age began the study of Greek, Plutarch began his first les- sons in Latin, and Socrates learned to play on instruments of music. Ar- nauld, the theologian and sage, trans- lated Josephus in his eightieth year. Gladstone began his great Midlothian campaign, which overthrew the Con- servative Government, and put himself 78 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY and his party in power, at eighty years of age. He became Premier for the fourth time at eighty-three, and held the office for two years. West painted ad- mirably until eighty years of age, and Goethe, at Weimar, completed "Faust" when as old. Hahnemann married at eighty, and was working at ninety-one years. Simonides won the prize for verse when over eighty years of age, and Ranke at the age of eighty began his "History of the World," and lived to complete twelve volumes, dying at the age of ninety-one. His later works show no diminution of power, and he wrote until within a few days of his death. Buffon, the great French nat- uralist, until shortly before his death at eighty-one, labored upon his "Natural History," a work of forty-four volumes. Henry G. Davis at eighty -one was nomi- 79 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY nated for the Vice-Presidency of the United States; Palmerston was Prime Minister of England when he died at that age, and John Quincy Adams was a power in the House of Representatives when stricken at eighty-one. Bancroft published the concluding volume of his "History" at eighty-two, and died at ninety-one. Charles Willson Peale, the painter, at eighty-two wielded his brush without the aid of spectacles and did some of his best work. Voltaire at eighty-three published a tragedy, "Irene"; and Tennyson, whose age was eighty-three, gave the world in his "Crossing the Bar" one of the most beautiful of swan-songs. Newton at eighty-three worked as hard as he did in middle life, and Herbert Spencer died at the same age, almost with pen in hand. Thomas Jefferson was fruitful 80 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY in council until the day of his death at eighty-three. Rennell at eighty-three read a paper "Concerning the Identity of the Remains at Jerash, whether they are those of Gerasa or Pella," and the next year another "Concerning the place where Julius Caesar landed in Britain." Talleyrand, dying at eighty-four, had, under successive French rulers, been a power all his life. Landor wrote his "Imaginary Conversations" when eighty-five years old, and at eighty-seven published his last volume of "Heroic Idylls." Guizot at eighty-seven showed unimpaired mental vigor and activity, and Hobbes, the English philosopher, at the same age published his version of the "Odyssey," and his "Iliad" one year later. A few weeks before his death, in his ninetieth year, he wrote to his pub- lisher, "I shall have something in Eng- 6 81 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY lish for you shortly." Von Moltke, when eighty -eight, was still chief of staff of the Prussian army, and John Wesley at that age preached almost every day and still held the helm of Methodism. At eighty-nine, Michelangelo was still painting his great canvases ; Theophras- tus's greatest work, "The Character of Man," was begun on his ninetieth birth- day, and Izaak Walton wielded a ready pen at ninety. John Adams retained all his great mental ability up to the time of his death at ninety-one, and Pope Leo XIII showed no sign of intellectual de- crepitude when he died of old age at ninety -three. Cornaro was in far better health at ninety-five than at thirty, and, it is said, was as happy as a boy. Fon- tenelle was as light-hearted at ninety- eight as at forty; Macklin, the Irish actor, born in 1690, performed in Eng- 82 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY land in 1789, being then in his ninety- ninth year; and, wonder of wonders! Chevreul, the great scientist, whose un- tiring labors in the realm of color have so enriched the world, was busy, keen, and active when death called him at the age of 103. With such achievements of the truly aged confronting us, who so bold as to attempt to set a limit to the usefulness of any man? It remains true, as the venerable Dr. Cuyler has indicated, that for many of the purposes and achieve- ments of life youth and early manhood are the most favorable; but for certain others the compacted mental fiber, long experience, and matured judgment of old age, are the most serviceable endow- ments. The one cannot usurp the place of the other, and the first only paves the way for the second. Not infrequently 83 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY those mentalities that ripen the slowest last the longest, and often the history of these great men has been persistent neglect and worldly coldness until forty or more years have passed before their greatness has been conceded by their contemporaries. Truly, "the life history of a great genius is almost inva- riably one of a sad and somber tone, a walk apart from the beaten path." Such are the words of one who should know what the "doers of deeds" must endure. Be this as it may, it is now recognized that many of the finest achievements in business, statesmanship, literature, and in all activities, have been wrought by men long past sixty. Writes one: "No strong man will accept sixty as the arbitrary limit of his ambi- tion and working ability." Axiomatically speaking, the deter- 84 DURATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY mination and the capacity to hold on and to make never-ending effort are the main elements in deciding success in self -culture, advancement, and growth in every line of work. Heredity, how- ever, counts for much. Innate nervous and mental energy are essential. He who comes into the world but feebly equipped in these qualifications is sadly handicapped in the battle of life. Like- wise environment influences destiny to a noteworthy degree. Early surround- ings, parental and associate, determine the direction and growth of the mind. Self-confidence, determined effort, and inherent mental force will work won- ders, no matter how rugged the soil may seem. 85 CHAPTER V WHAT THE WORLD MIGHT HAVE MISSED AUSTINGUISHED citizen of the world, a man of extreme culture and erudition, whose achievements and lite- rary contributions have incalculably en- riched the storehouse of knowledge, not long ago remarked in a notable address : "Take the sum of human achievement, in action, in science, in art, in literature ; subtract the work of the men above forty, and while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are to- day. It is difficult to name a great and far-reaching conquest of the mind which 86 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED has not been given to the world by a man on whose back the sun was still shining. The effective, moving, vitaliz- ing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty." No more genial and kindly disposed person exists than Professor Osier, the originator of these views. Love for his fellow-man and intense sympathy are his striking characteristics. Only the most honest belief prompts every utter- ance of his pen. Statements from such a source, however startling or distasteful to the average reader, command an earnest perusal, a close and searching investigation but not a blind accept- ance. For even the most thoroughly grounded may, if arguing from appa- rently sound, but actually incorrect, premises, arrive at logically correct, but virtually erroneous, conclusions. If the 87 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY deduction be correct, why, one would reason, should the earth be cumbered with so much intellectual dead wood, the span of life be extended to threescore and ten years only that there may be thirty years of regression and slow but progressive mental decay? Nature in all her many laboratories is prodigal in her profusion, but never aimlessly so. There is an excess of production, but never a useless accumulation. Only that survives which is found worthy; all else speedily makes way for more powerful, more efficient, and more productive suc- cessors. The Pre-tertiary times pre- pared the way for the Tertiary, this for the Quaternary, and all for the dwelling of man upon the earth. The antedilu- vian must perish in order that his more worthy successor should find the way clear for his development. The super- 88 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED stitions of antiquity and of medieval times vanish before the sunburst of education and accumulated knowledge. Only in the noblest creation of nature are we to find a notable exception. Man is at his best in his youthful days, and then, resisting the sublime law of the "survival of the fittest," insists upon lingering here that he may gloat over his early successes or bemoan his intel- lectual decay, according to the peculiar temperament with which he has been endowed. The sweeping and iconoclastic state- ment of the brilliant savant at first sight would seem to discount temperament, experience, accumulated learning, judg- ment, discretion, maturity all that go to make the intellectual granite and marble of the impressive and command- ing man of middle age. Impulse, ini- 89 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY tiative, adventure, rise to the acme of desirability, and are the golden virtues to be cultivated and apotheosized. Only fifteen vears of mental effort, and the I climax is reached! Then begins the in- evitable descent to oblivion and decay. Again, it would seem to indicate that all these virtues, desirable enough in their place and time, are strictly and irrev- ocably limited to a certain period of the human development. Beyond this epochal dead-line they cannot be found, save in monumental exceptions which are the wonder and perplexity of the hidebound scientist. Does history warrant or corroborate such a conclusion? Most assuredly not, and doubtless it was far from the inten- tion of the writer of the opening para- graph even to intimate as much. The record-book of the world is replete with 9Q WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED the opportunities and successes of age and experience. As some one has said: "The golden thread of youth is carried to a much later period of life now than it was in former years." An Indian, chided for being sixty, replied that the sixties con- tain all the wisdom and experience of the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties. Yes, and some of the initiative, also. The Patriarch of the Exodus, when an impulsive and immature man of forty, deeming the hour had struck, took the initiative in his own hands, blundered, through a misconception of the times, and, because of his rash and inop- portune murder of the Egyptian brawler, was compelled to flee the land. For forty years he was immured in the wilderness of Midian, buffeted by wind and tempest, exiled from human com- panionship, gnawed at by conflicting 91 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY mental emotions, there to learn the se- cret of self-control, and through pro- tracted communion with nature to acquire the massiveness and robustness of character that were essential for his true work at eighty. It is not the motive of the present essay, however, to make up the cudgels of defense for the unfortunates who have attained to the age of forty and over. Let them speak for themselves. A feeling of curiosity to know what would be subtracted from the sum of achievement had life arbitrarily been terminated at successive ages has promp- ted what can only properly be termed a retrograde analysis. Let it be sup- posed that all life had ceased at the individual age of seventy ; then at sixty, fifty, and forty, and what then would have been left as the result of mental 92 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED activity in the first four decades of life? Here is a wide field for most interesting investigation. The scope is tremendous, embracing the outcome of mental activ- ity throughout the period of the world's authentic history, and it at once becomes evident that only a few pivotal facts can be selected as illustrative of the ac- complishments of the various decades. The omission of one or another of the great records must not be construed as in any sense depreciatory or as delimit- ing their values and influence upon the evolution of the race. AFTER SEVENTY THE Biblical limitation of life is three- score years and ten, and any attainment of years over and beyond this age is by reason of strength. If it had been de- 93 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY creed that no man should exceed this statutory limit, what, then, would have been missed from the category of the world's achievements? In addition to the wonderful work of the "group of Titans," of which mention has already been made, there must now be deducted a record of achievement even more astonishing than this. In the first place, in the sphere of action, the great Mosaic law, which lies at the foundation of, and has virtually constituted, the moral law of the nations ever since its evolution, would never have been promulgated at least as the Mosaic law. For let it be remembered that it was presented to the Hebrew exodists when its hoary-headed sponsor had rounded out a century or more of existence. It may be asserted that this law would inevitably have been enacted 94 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED sooner or later had not the ancient law- giver seized upon the opportunity when it presented itself. This is undoubtedly true, not only of the Mosaic law, but of all great achievements which wait the destined man and hour for their evolu- tion and elaboration. It in no wise de- tracts, however, from the fact that this fundamental law was given to the world by one who had attained to extreme age the twilight of life far beyond the average working-period of man. Again, Savigny, the founder of modern juris- prudence, would not have published his famous treatise on "Obligations," which he did when seventy-four years of age. Palmerston would not have attained the primacy of England, nor Disraeli have served his second term in that office. Benjamin Franklin's invaluable service in France would have been lost to his 95 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY country; Gladstone would not have be- come the "Grand Old Man" of England and for eleven years have held the prime ministership ; and Henry Clay's Omni- bus Bill to avert the battle on slavery would not have been conceived. In the field of science notable losses would have to be recorded. Galileo would not have made the wonderful dis- covery of the moon's diurnal and monthly librations. Spencer's "In- adequacy of Natural Selection" and Darwin's "Power of Movement in Plants" and "The Formation of Vege- table Mould through the Action of Worms" would not have been written. Buffon's five volumes on minerals and eight volumes on reptiles, fishes, and cetaceans, would have been lost. Von Baer, the eminent biologist, would not have composed his monumental "Com- 96 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED parative Embryology." Harvey's "Exercitationes de Generatione Anima- lium" would not exist; Euler's greatest astronomical work, "Opuscula Analy- tica," and Galileo's most valuable book, "Dialogue on the New Science," would have failed of publication. Priceless treasures would be elimi- nated from the art-collections of the world. Titian would not have lived to paint his "Venus and Adonis," "Last Judgment," "Martyrdom of St. Lau- rence," "Christ Crowned with Thorns," "Diana and Acta3on," "Magdalen," "Christ in the Garden," and his "Battle of Lepanto," which appeared when the artist was ninety-eight years old. Ben- jamin West would not have painted his masterpiece, "Christ Rejected"; Corot's "Matin a Ville d'Avray," "Danse An- tique," and "Le Bucheron," would not 7 97 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY exist; nor would Cruikshank's frontis- piece to Mrs. Blewitt's "The Rose and the Lily," the latter having been com- pleted when the artist was eighty-three years old. In music, Rossini's "Petite Messe Solennelle" would have been lost. And what shall we say of the realm of literary effort? It is astonishing to note what these old men of seventy and over have contributed in this direction. Benjamin Franklin's inimitable auto- biography; Disraeli's "Endymion"; Lander's masterful "Hellenics" ; Schell- ing's "Philosophy of Mythology and Revelation" ; Chateaubriand's.celebrated "Memoires d'outre-tombe" ; Milman's "History of St. Paul's"; Voltaire's tragedy "Irene"; Leigh Hunt's "Stories in Verse"; Emerson's "Letters and So- cial Aims"; Ruskin's "Verona and Other Lectures"; Michelet's "History 98 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED of the Nineteenth Century"; Guizot's "Meditations on the Christian Re- ligion" and his large five-volume "His- tory of France"; Swedenborg's "De Crelo et de Inferno" and his "Sapientia Angelica"; Tennyson's "Rizpah," "The Foresters," "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," and other famous poems ; Long- fellow's "Ultima Thule"; Hallam's "Literary Essays and Characters"; Washington Irving's "Wolfert's Roost"; Holmes's "Iron Gate and Other Poems"; Ranke's "History of Wallenstein," and his "History of Eng- land" ; Hobbes's "Behemoth,"" Rosetum Geometricum," "Decameron Physiolo- gicum," and "Problemata Physica" ; the last three volumes of Bancroft's history ; Froude's "Life of Lord Beaconsfield" and "Divorce of Catherine of Aragon"; much of Mommsen's "Corpus Inscrip- 99 THE AGE OP MENTAL VIRILITY tionum Latinarum"; and Goethe's "Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre." BETWEEN SIXTY AND SEVENTY HAD the seventh decade (that which may well be termed the period of his- tory-making and autobiography) been eliminated from the totality of human life, still greater drafts upon the store- house of knowledge and achievement would have to be made. From the field of action alone most important events would be deducted. That remarkable ethico-political system, Confucianism, which has done so much to mold the Celestial intellect, would have been lost to China; Bismarck would not have in- stituted the career of Germany as a col- onizing power; Pasteur's discovery of the value of inoculation for the preven- 100 tion of hydrophobia would have been left for some other bright intellect to evolve. Monroe would not have enun- ciated the famous doctrine for the development and protection of the American nationalities. Von Moltke would not have executed the marvelous campaign that won the Franco-Prussian War, nor would Sir Charles Napier's famous campaign in the Sind, with its great and decisive victories of Meanee and Hyderabad, have been conceived. The United States would have lost the brilliant career of John Hay as Secre- tary of State, and the great principle of the preservation of the unity of China would not have been established, to the undoing of national, political, and terri- torial greed. Columbus would not have accomplished his third and fourth great voyages, wherein he discovered the 101 ABE. L, WOLBABST, M, D 105 Eait 19th Street, N. Y, THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY South American continent and the island of Martinique. England would not have profited by the magnificent statesmanship of Palmerston; John Adams would not have attained the Presidency nor Jefferson have served his second term. Beaconsfield's primacy in England, Crispi's in Italy, and Dan- iel Webster's second term in the Depart- ment of State would have been lost to their respective governments, while the American Colony would have been deprived of Benjamin Franklin's in- valuable services at home. In the great religious struggle in Europe, Luther's pamphlet on the "Wittenberg Reforma- tion" and much of his personal influence would have been abolished; and Sa- vigny's great "Modern System of Roman Law" would not have enriched the literature of jurisprudence. 102 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED From the granaries of science must be extracted some of their choicest ac- cumulations, including Darwin's famous "Descent of Man," hte "Insectivorous Plants," and "Emotions in Man and Animals"; Buffon's "Natural History of Birds"; Tyndall's "Essays on the Floating Matter of the Air"; Herbert Spencer's "Factors of Organic Evolu- tion" ; Audubon's "Biography of Amer- ican Quadrupeds"; Lyell's third great work, "Antiquity of Man" ; John Hun- ter's masterpiece on "Blood, Inflamma- tion, and Gunshot Wounds"; Max Miiller's "Buddhist Texts from Japan," "Science of Thought," "Lectures on Natural and Physical Religion," and "Anthropological Religions"; La- grange's remarkable work, "Theory of the Analytical Functions"; Biot's en- larged "Elementary Treatise on Phy- 103 sical Astronomy"; Galileo's famous "Dialogue with God upon the Great Systems of the World"; Leverrier's tremendous task of the revision of the planetary theories; D'Alembert's im- portant work, "Opuscules mathema- tiques"; John Napier's masterful invention of the system of logarithms and his description thereof, which is second only to Newton's "Principia," and his "Rabdologia," descriptive of the famous Napier enumerating bones ; and Faraday's "Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics," and his "Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle." Truly priceless treasures would be missed from the galleries and labora- tories of art and music. Michelangelo's celebrated "Last Judgment," the most famous single picture in the world, and 104 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED his frescos in the Sistine Chapel ; Corot's "Solitude," "Repose," and other beauti- ful works; Cruikshank's elaborate etch- ing for Brough's "Life of Sir John Falstaff," and his most important pic- ture, "Worship of Bacchus"; Titian's period of artistic acme, including his "Battle of Cadore" and the portraits of the twelve Caesars; West's famous can- vases, including the celebrated "Christ Healing the Sick"; Perugino's frescos in the Monastery of Sta. Agnese in Perugia; Turner's inimitable "Fighting Temeraire," his "Slave Ship," and his Venetian sketches; Meissonier's famous "Friedland 1807," "Cuirassier of 1805," "Moreau and his staff before Hohenlinden," "Outpost of the Grand Guard," "Saint Mark," and many others of his works ; Blake's great series of engravings illustrating the Book of 105 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Job; Bouguereau's "Love Disarmed," "Love Victorious," "Psyche and Love," "Holy Women at the Sepulchre," "Lit- tle Beggar Girls," and other works; Hogarth's "The Lady's Last Stake," "Bathos," and "Sigismunda Weeping over the Heart of her Murdered Lover"; Murillo's series of pictures in the Augustinian Convent at Seville illustrating the life of the "glorious doc- tor," and his able portrait of the Canon Justino; Reynolds's portraits of Mrs. Siddons as "The Tragic Muse," the Duchess of Devonshire and her child, Miss Gwatkin as "Simplicity," and "The Infant Hercules"; Landseer's powerful "Swannery Invaded by Sea Eagles" and his "Pair of Nutcrackers"; Wagner's "Parsifal"; the two works on which Haydn's claims to immortality mainly rest, the oratorio, "Creation," 106 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED and the cantata, "The Seasons" ; Verdi's famous "Requiem" ; Handel's oratorios, "Judas Maccabaeus," "Joshua," "Solo- mon," "Susanna," "Theodora," and "Jephtha"; Gluck's "Armide" and his famous "Iphigenie en Tauride"; Gou- nod's brilliant oratorio "La Redemp- tion," his "Le Tribut de Zamora," the oratorio "Death and Life," and the "Messe a la Memoire de Jeanne d'Arc" ; and Meyerbeer's "Star of the North" and "The Pardon of Ploermel." The devastation in the field of litera- ture would be irreparable. Now would be eliminated Littre's great "Dictionary of the French Language," pronounced the best lexicon in any living tongue; Grote's "Plato and the Other Compan- ions of Socrates" ; Ranke's "History of England"; Grimm's celebrated "Corre- spondence litteraire" ; Newman's "Apo- 107 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY logia," the greatest and most effective religious autobiography of the nine- teenth century, his "Dream of Geron- tius," a poem of great subtlety and pathos, and his "Grammar of Assent" ; Sydney Smith's trenchant "Letters on the Ecclesiastical Commission"; Sir Richard Burton's translation of the "Arabian Nights"; Kenan's "History of the Israelitish People"; Southey's "Doctor"; the third part of Butler's "Hudibras"; Grant's "Memoirs"; Lan- dor's famous "Pericles and Aspasia" and his equally famous "Pentameron" ; Herbert Spencer's "Man versus the State" and "Ecclesiastical Institu- tions"; Thomas Chalmers's noted "Institutes of Theology"; Lowell's "Old English Dramatists," "Hearts- ease and Rue," and some of his "Poli- tical Essays" ; John Knox's "Historic of 108 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED the Reformation"; Carlyle's largest work, "History of Frederick the Great"; Corneille's "Attila" and "Tite et Berenice"; Defoe's "Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders," "Jour- nal of the Plague Year," "Political History of the Devil," and "System of Magic"; the second part of "Don Quixote," which is much superior in invention to its predecessor, though composed when the author was sixty- seven years of age; also Cervantes's second best work, "Novelas Exempla- res," and his most successful poem, "Voyage to Parnassus"; Saint-Simon's last and most important expression of his views, "The New. Christianity"; Leigh Hunt's "Autobiography," "Wit and Humor," and "A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla"; Swift's "Polite Conversation"; Schopenhauer's "Par- 109 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY erga und Paralipomena" ; Goethe's "Theory of Color," his autobiography "Poetry and Truth, and many of his best poems; Young's "Night Thoughts" ; Wordsworth's "Evening Voluntaries"; Bryant's "Letters of a Trawler"; Guizot's "History of the British Commonwealth"; Swedenborg's famous "Arcana Coelestia"; Bulwer Lytton's "Kenelm Chillingly," "The Coming Race," and "The Parisians"; Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" and his splendid "Letters on a Regicide Peace"; Bun- sen's well-known "Bible-work," "God in History," and "Egypt's Place in Universal History"; Wilhelm Grimm's "Old German Dialogues"; Hugo's "Toilers of the Sea," "The Man Who Laughs," and "The Terrible Year"; Isaac D'Israeli's "Genius of Judaism" 110 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED and "Commentary on the Life and Reign of Charles I"; Du Maurier's "The Martian"; the second series of Matthew Arnold's "Essays in Crit- icism"; George William Curtis's "Easy Chair"; Wyclif's most important book, "Trialogus"; John Stuart Mills "Essay on> Theism"; Huxley's "Evolution and Ethics"; Berkeley's famous "Common- Place Book," one of the most valuable autobiographical records in existence; many of Verne's best works, including "The Mysterious Island"; Dean Stan- ley's "Christian Institutions," an ex- ceedingly important work; Coleridge's famous "Epitaph" and his "Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit"; Milton's "Paradise Regained," "Samson Ago- nistes," and "History of Britain to the Norman Conquest"; Condillac's "Logic" and the important work, "Corn- Ill THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY merce and Government"; Zola's "Ve- rite"; Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" and "A Half Century of Con- flict"; Hobbes's masterpiece, "Levia- than," and his famous "Elementa Philosophica de Give," "De Corpore Politico," and "Human Nature"; Leib- nitz's celebrated "Essais de Theodicee," his "Monadologie," and the "Principes de la Natur et de la Grace" ; Mommsen's "Provinces of the Roman Empire" ; La- martine's "History of the Restoration" and "History of Russia"; Hallam's "Introduction to the Literature of Europe" ; Bockh's great work, "History of the World-cycles of the Greeks"; Voltaire's unsurpassable tale "Can- dide" ; Ruskin's "Arrows of the Chase," "Art of England," and the fascinating, though unfinished autobiography "Pras- terita" ; Milman's great work, "History WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED of Latin Christianity"; Emerson's "So- ciety and Solitude," his anthology, "Par- nassus," and "Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect" ; Dry den's mas- terful second ode on "St. Cecilia's Day" and his translation of Vergil; the eigh- teen volumes of Lacepede's "General, Physical, and Civil History of Europe" ; Michelet's monumental work, "History of France"; Jacob Grimm's two masterpieces, "History of the German Language" and the "Deutsches Wor- terbuch"; Locke's "Thoughts on Education," "Vindication," and "Rea- sonableness of Christianity"; Francis Bacon's "History of Henry VII," "Apothegms," and "History of Life and Death"; Diderot's "Essay on the Reigns of Claudius and Nero"; D'Alembert's "Dream" and his play, "Jacques le Fataliste"; Washington 113 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Irving's "Oliver Goldsmith" and "Lives of Mahomet and his Successors" ; Whit- tier's "Among the Hills," "Ballads of New England," "Hazel Blossoms," "Mabel Martin," and "Vision of Echard"; Longfellow's "New England Tragedies," "Aftermath," "Hanging of the Crane," and "Mask of Pandora"; Tennyson's "Gareth and Lynette," "Last Tournament," "Queen Mary," "Harold," the best of his dramas, the lyric "Revenge," "Defence of Luck- now," and "The Lover's Tale"; Brown- ing's "Dramatic Idyls," "The Inn Album," and "Aristophanes' Apology" ; Holmes's "Poet at the Breakfast- Table," "Songs of Many Seasons," "The Iron Gate," and "Memoirs of John L. Motley" ; the fourth part of Le Sage's "Gil Bias" ; Froude's lives of Cae- sar and Carlyle and "The English in the 114 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED . West Indies"; Lew Wallace's "Prince of India" ; Lever's "The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly" and "Lord Kilgobbin"; Reade's "A Woman-Hater," "The Wandering Heir," and "The Jilt"; Samuel Richardson's "Sir Charles Grandison"; Trollope's "The Prime Minister," "The American Senator," and "Is He Popenjoy?" and Ib- sen's "Hedda Gabler," "The Master Builder," "Little Eyolf," "John Ga- briel Borkman," and "When the Dead Awake." BETWEEN FIFTY AND SIXTY THE sixth decade of life has been most prolific in human achievement, and may well be designated as the age ^of the masterwork. In action alone its accom- plishments have revolutionized history, 115 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY and it would be most difficult to con- ceive what would be the present status of the world's affairs had these ten years of individual life never existed. Columbus would not then have made his discovery of the American continent; Marlborough would not have won the great victory at Blenheim; Morse's in- vention of the telegraphic alphabet would have been lost; Richelieu would not have attained supremacy in France and concluded the Peace of West- phalia ; Cassar would not have corrected the calendar or have written his "Com- mentaries"; Cromwell would not have overthrown Charles I and established the Protectorate in England; Lincoln would not have issued his Emancipation Proclamation; Bright's great fight in Parliament for reform would not have been made; Loyola would not have 116 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED founded the Society of Jesus, nor Jef- ferson have established the Democratic party in the United States; Knox's great work of the Reformation in Scot- land would have been lost; Wyclif would not have made the first complete English version of the Bible, nor Luther the first complete translation of that book; Schliemann's excavations at Troy and elsewhere would not have en- riched archaeology; Humboldt would not have established a line of magnetic and meteorologic stations across north- ern Asia; Galvani would never have enunciated his celebrated theory of ani- mal electricity, nor John Hunter have discovered the uteroplacental circu- lation, first ligated successfully the femoral artery in the canal that bears his name, and have built his famous ana- tomical museum when generally recog- 117 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY nized as the first surgeon in England; Kepler would not have invented his wonderful table of logarithms, nor Faraday have lived through his second great period of research in which he discovered the effect of magnetism on polarized light and the phenomenon of diamagnetism. Lord Chesterfield's fa- mous system of social ethics and the Hegelian and Lotzian systems of philosophy would have been lost. Leib- nitz would not have founded the Acad- emy of Berlin, nor Bunsen have urged the unity of Germany. Wellington would not have accomplished the Eman- cipation of the Catholics during his primacy. Penn would not have made his famous treaty with the Indians; Laud and Cranmer would not have in- fluenced the church of England, and the latter have secured the legalization of 118 the marriage of the clergy. John Adams's celebrated "Defense of the American Constitution" would have been lost; Washington would not have become the first President of the United States, nor would Talleyrand have overthrown the Napoleonic Em- pire, secured the ascension to the throne of Louis XVIII, and achieved his supreme triumph at the Congress of Vienna; Robert E. Lee's services would have been lost to the Confede- racy, and much of Von Moltke's re- markable activity in strategical and tactical military affairs would have been missed; Herschel would not have invented his great reflecting telescope, nor have made his sublime discovery of the action of mechanical laws in the movements of the celestial bodies. Swedenborg would not have experi- 119 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY enced his religious change and founded his order. Joe Jefferson would not have made the part of "Bob Acres" a national favorite, nor Irving have reached the apex of his career. Guizot would not have attained the primacy of France and ruled for eight years; Peel would not have contributed his master- work in improving the finances of his country. Canning's brilliant career in Parliament would have been lost, to- gether with the formation of the Triple Alliance between France, Russia, and Great Britain which resulted in the in- dependence of Greece. Monroe would not have served through his administra- tion, Edmund Burke have devised his famous India Bill and secured the im- peachment of Warren Hastings, nor Garibaldi have become the dictator of Italy. 120 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED Scientific investigation would have been impoverished by the loss of Leidy's famous contributions to biology ; the first fifteen volumes of Buffon's "Natural History"; Darwin's "Fertilization of Orchids" and "The Habits and Move- ments of Climbing Plants"; Cuvier's magnificent "Natural History of Fishes" and his "History and Anat- omy of Mollusks"; and Huxley's "Physiography" and "Science and Cul- ture." Herbert Spencer would not have contributed his "Study and Prin- ciples of Sociology," "Political and Ceremonial Institutions" and "The Data of Ethics"; Hugh Miller's masterwork, "My Schools and School- masters," would have been lost. Saint- Simon- would not have written his "L'Industrie" and "L'Organisateur" ; Galileo his "II Saggiatore"; La- THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY grange his great work "Mecanique analytique" ; John Stuart Mill his "Representative Government" and "Utilitarianism"; Copernicus his great treatise on "The Revolutions of Celes- tial Bodies"; Boerhaave his famous "Elements of Chemistry"; and Adam Smith his masterpiece on the "Wealth of Nations." Biot's "Researches in Ancient Astronomy" would have been w lost, as would also Condillac's "Study of History" and his "Treatise on Ani- mals," Sir Richard Burton's "Zanzibar" and "Gold Mines of Midian," and Rennell's celebrated "Geographical System of Herodotus." Faraday would not have published the first two volumes of his "Experimental Researches in Electricity," Diderot would not have prepared the main part of his great French encyclopedia, nor Tyndall have 122 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED written the "Use and Limit of Imagi- nation in Science." Many famous pictures would be missed from the galleries of the world, including Velasquez's great portrait of Innocent X, which was pronounced by Reynolds the finest picture in Rome; his famous portrait of Pareja; the mas- terful "Spinners," the splendid "Venus and Cupid," "Maids of Honor," and many other of his works ; some of Rey- nolds's best work ; Cruikshank's tragical and powerful series of pictures for "The Bottle"; Perugino's masterpiece, "Ma- donna and Saints," in the Certosa of Pavia, and his wonderful paintings in the audience-hall of the Guild of Bank- ers of Perugia; Leonardo da Vinci's famous "Battle of the Standard," de- signed when the artist was the most fa- mous painter of Italy; Gainsborough's 123 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY most noted work, the "Duchess of Devonshire"; Romney's famous "In- fant Shakespeare attended by the Passions," and "Milton and his Daugh- ters" ; the most brilliant works of Rem- brandt, including his masterpiece, "Syndics of the Cloth Hall," "Jewish Bride," and the "Family Group of Brunswick"; Corot's famous "Sunset in the Tyrol," "Dance of the Nymphs," "Dante and Vergil," "Macbeth," and "Hagar in the Desert"; Titian's "Ve- nus" of Florence, and "St. Peter Mar- tyr"; West's "Death of Wolfe" and the noted "Perm's Treaty with the Indians" ; Tintoretto's magnificent "Plague of Serpents," "Moses Striking the Rock," and many of his memorable paintings, including the four extraor- dinary masterpieces, "Bacchus and Ariadne," "Three Graces and Mercury," WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED "Minerva discarding Mars," and the "Forge of Vulcan"; Constable's famous "Valley Farm"; the best of Turner's work, including "Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus,*" "Bridge of Sighs," "Ducal Palace," and "Custom House, Venice"; Landseer's excellent "Flood in the Highlands," "Deer in Repose," and "Deer Browsing"; Hogarth's ad- mirable prints of an "flection," "Paul before Felix," "Moses brought to Pha- raoh's Daughter," and "Gate of Calais"; Rubens's equestrian picture of Philip IV, "Banqueting House at Whitehall," "Feast of Venus," the por- traits of Helena Fourment, and over forty pictures .in Spain; Millet's "The Knitting Lesson," "November," and "Buttermaking" ; Meissonier's "Desaix and the Army of the Rhine" ; and Bou- guereau's well-known "Youth of Bac- 125 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY chus," "Mater Afflictorum," "The Birth of Venus," "Girl Defending Herself from Love," and "The Scourging of our Lord." From the musical conservatories would be taken Spohr's great work, "The Fall of Babylon"; Meyerbeer's famous production, "The Prophet"; Verdi's "Don Carlos" and the great "Aida"; Gluck's superb "Alceste" and "Paris and Helen"; Handel's great oratorios, "The Messiah," "Saul," "Israel in Egypt," "Samson," "Joseph," "Belshazzar," and "Hercules"; Bach's magnificent "Mass in B minor," pro- nounced one of the greatest master- pieces of all time; Beethoven's famous "Choral Symphonies"; Brahms's su- preme achievement, the four "Ernste Gesange"; and Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" and "Die Meistersinger." 126 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED And what shall we miss from the bookshelves ? Priceless treasures in very truth. The works of Aristotle and Plato; Kant's "Critique of Pure Rea- son"; Bacon's celebrated "Novum Organum"; Locke's famous "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" ; the second part of Butler's "Hudibras" ; Raleigh's prison-written "History of the World"; Reade's "Foul Play" and "Put Yourself in His Place"; the last volume of Niebuhr's "History of Rome"; George Fox's "Journal"; Bun- yan's "Holy War" and the second part of "The Pilgrim's Progress"? Haw- thorne's second masterpiece, "The Marble Faun"; La Rochefoucauld's famous "Maxims"; Boswell's "Life of Johnson"; the third book of Mon- taigne's "Essays" ; Voltaire's wonderful "Philosophical Dictionary" and his fa- 127 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY mous "Diatribe du Docteur Akakia"; Sir Edwin Arnold's "Light of the World" and "With Sa'di in the Gar- den"; Erasmus's celebrated "Col- loquia"; Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend" and "Mystery of Edwin Drood"; Keble's famous "Lyra Inno- centium"; Dryden's best play, "Don Sebastian," and his opera "Albion and Albanius" ; Hay's (collaborated) life of Lincoln; Chateaubriand's "Les Nat- chez" ; Boucicault's "The Shaughraun," and the beautiful "Daddy O'Dowd"; Grote's celebrated "History of Greece"; the second volume of Penn's "Fruits of Solitude"; Chalmers's work on "Poli- tical Economy"; Dean Stanley's "His- torical Memorials of Westminster Abbey"; Goethe's "Naturliche Toch- ter" and the first part of "Faust"; the first series of Landor's "Imaginary 128 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED Conversations"; the third part of "Gil Bias"; "Robinson Crusoe"; Rousseau's celebrated "Confessions"; "Ben Hur"; the last two volumes of Macaulay's "History of England"; Lamartine's greatest prose work, "History of the Girondins"; Cowper's "Task"; "The Divine Comedy"; "Paradise Lost"; "Canterbury Tales"; "Les Miserables" ; the first part of "Don Quixote"; Free- man's "Ottoman Power in Europe" and his famous "The Reign of William Rufus"; the second collection of La Fontaine's "Fables," pronounced di- vine; "Gulliver's Travels," and the "Drapier's Letters," Swift's greatest political triumph ; Sainte-Beuve's "Study of Vergil" and the final and best series of the "Monday" articles; the last seven volumes of Sterne's "Trist- ram Shandy"; Gibbon's delightful 9 129 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY "Memoirs"; Zola's famous "Debacle" and "Fecundity"; Montesquieu's mas- terwork, "L'Esprit des lois"; Ibsen's "A Doll House," "Ghosts," and "Ros- mersholm" ; many of Matthew Arnold's best essays; Racine's masterpiece, "Athalie"; Livingstone's "Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi"; Dodg- son's "Mathematica Curiosa" and "Rhyme and Reason"; Du'Maurier's "Trilby" and "Peter Ibbetsen"; Leigh Hunt's "Captain Sword and Captain Pen," "Legend of Florence," and the charming "Imagination and Fancy"; the most singular of Lever's works, "Life's Romance"; Samuel Richard- son's "Pamela" and his masterpiece, "Clarissa Harlowe"; Hood's "Song of the Shirt" and "Bridge of Sighs"; the third volume of Isaac D' Israeli's "Curi- osities of Literature"; Moliere's bril- 130 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED liant "Le malade imaginaire" ; Francis Parkman's "The Old Regime in Canada" and "Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV"; Cor- neille's "Discourses on Dramatic Poetry" and his "CEdipe," "Sopho- nisbe" and "Sertorius"; Berkeley's cele- brated "Siris"; Comte's greatest work, "System of Positive Polity," and his "Catechism of Positivism"; Froude's "English in Ireland"; Ranke's "His- tory of Prussia" and "History of France in the Sixteenth and Seven- teenth Centuries"; Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra," and his masterpiece, "The Ring and the Book"; Max Miiller's "Origin and Growth of Religion" and "Selected Essays on Language, My- thology, and Religion"; Ruskin's "Proserpina," "Deucalion," and "Lec- tures on Art"; Descartes's essay on the 131 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY "Passions of the Mind"; Lowell's "Among My Books" and "My Study Windows"; Prescott's "Conquest of Peru" and "History of Philip IV"; Cooper's "The Deerslayer" and "The Two Admirals"; Michelet's "History of the French Revolution" and "Women of the Revolution"; Wash- ington Irving's "Astoria"; Bulwer Lytton's "A Strange Story"; Cole- ridge's "Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character"; Emerson's "English Traits" and "Con- duct of Life"; Renan's "Marcus Aure- lius" and his "Evangelists"; Whittier's "In War-Time," "Snow-bound," "Maud Muller," and "National Lyrics"; Ten- nyson's "Enoch Arden," "The Holy Grail," and "Lucretius"; Longfellow's "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "Tales of a Wayside Inn," "Birds of 132 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED Passage," and "The Children's Hour"; Holmes's "The Professor at the Break- fast-Table," "Elsie Vernier," and "Humorous Poems" ; Machiavelli's "Art of War," "History of Florence," and the powerful play, "Mandragola" ; Ben Jonson's "The Staple of News" and "The New Inn"; Wordsworth's "Ecclesiastical Sketches"; Scott's last novels, "Woodstock," "The Fair Maid of Perth," "Chronicles of the Canon- gate," and "Anne of Geierstein" ; Jean Paul Richter's "Comet"; and a host of other standard works. BETWEEN FORTY AND FIFTY FINALLY, the elimination of the fifth decade of life would cause tremendous inroads upon the already sadly depleted records of human achievement. John 133 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Gutenberg would not have invented the art of printing from type, nor Franklin invented the lightning-rod. Humboldt would not have devised the system of isothermal lines, nor Galvani'the metallic arc, nor would the latter have made his discovery of dynamic electricity. Priest- ley would not have discovered oxygen, nor Jenner have made his wonderful in- oculation for smallpox, nor Harvey have announced his discovery of the circula- tion of the blood. Bessemer would not have invented his pneumatic process for the manufacture of steel, Watt the double acting steam-engine, nor Ste- phenson have instituted the modern era of railways. The colonies would have forfeited the invaluable services of Washington in the Revolutionary War ; Morris would not have been the finan- cial support of the Government; Jay 134 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED would not have become the first Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Hungary would have lost the statesmanship of Kossuth ; Tal- leyrand would not have accomplished his diplomatic career, nor Webster his great Congressional record ; Peel would not have made his great speech on Cath- olic Emancipation;- Monroe would not have negotiated the Louisiana Pur- chase; and Calhoun would not have become the author of the doctrine of "nullification," to which the Civil War may be traced. Grant would not have won his great victories of the Civil War, nor would Sherman have achieved his military fame. Wren would not have designed St. Paul's Cathedral. France would have lost the services of Maret and Cardinal Mazarin. Cavour would not have 135 become the virtual ruler of Italy and convened the first Italian Par- liament, nor would Savonarola have become the lawgiver of Florence. Blackstone would not have prepared his "Commentaries"; Nelson would not have won the battle of Trafalgar, nor Cromwell his victories at Marston Moor and Naseby. Cardinal Wolsey would not have enjoyed his successful career; Boerhaave would not have introduced the system of clinical instruction into the study of medicine. Richard Henry Lee would not hare suggested holding the Continental Congress, and thereby have strongly incited to the revolution of the Colonies. Luther would not have published the famous Augsburg Con- fession, nor Knox have become a Prot- estant and begun the Reformation in Scotland. Bright would not have made 136 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED his great speech on the Crimean War, nor Turgot have accomplished his mag- nificent work in France as Minister of Finance; Richelieu would not have had his famous military and diplomatic career; Wellington would have missed his campaign in Spain and would not have overthrown Napoleon at Waterloo ; Reynolds would not have founded the Royal Academy and have become its first president; Edmund Burke would not have made his great speech on Con- ciliation; Bunsen have accomplished his diplomatic career in Italy; nor Palmer- ston have lived through the most impor- tant and successful period of his life, during which he placed Leopold upon the throne of Belgium. Macready, Irv- ing, and Forrest would not have attained the height of their power, nor would La Salle have explored the Mississippi, Liv- 137 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY ingstone have made the Zambesi expe- dition and discovered the Victoria Falls, nor Champlain have founded Quebec and established the French power in lower Canada. Science would lose Huxley's "Anat- omy of Vertebrates and Invertebrates" ; Darwin's "Origin of Species"; Hugh Miller's "The Footprints of the Cre- ator"; Lacepede's "Natural History of Fishes"; Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Biology" and his "Synthetic Philos- ophy"; Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's cele- brated "Anatomical Philosophy"; Von Baer's "Development of Fishes" and "History of the Evolution of Animals" ; Linnaeus's masterwork, "Species Plan- tarum"; Cope's famous work in pale- ontology; Agassiz's great work on "Zoology"; Lamarck's famous "Botan- ical Dictionary" and his invention of the 138 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED name "invertebrate"; Newton's monu- mental "Principia." ; the first volume of Audubon's "Birds of America"; Kep- ler's extraordinary production, "Celes- tial Harmonics," and his "Stereometria Doliorum," which entitles him to rank among those who prefaced the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus; Rennell's great work, "Memoir of a Map of Hin- dustan" ; Tyndall's studies on heat-radi- ation and his "Natural Philosophy" and "Dust and Disease"; Diderot's monu- mental "Encyclopedia"; D'Alembert's "Elements of Philosophy"; Hegel's fa- mous "Science of Logic"; Berkeley's "Alciphron" and "The Analyst"; Des- cartes's "Discourse on Method," "Medi- tations on the First Philosophy," and "Principia Philosophise," all great works; Lotze's fine work, "Mikrokos- mos"; Biot's magnificent "Treatise on 139 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Experimental Physics" ; LyelTs famous "Elements of Geology"; Lavoisier's "Method of Chemical Nomenclature'*; and Laplace's celebrated "Celestial Me- chanics," which contains his enunciation of the nebular hypothesis. Lagrange would not have published his theory of cometary perturbations; Dalton have originated the volumetric method of chemical analysis; Galileo have .solved the riddle of the Milky Way, discovered the satellites of Jupiter, and the triple form of Saturn, and have published his famous "Sidereus Nuncius"; nor Herschel have discovered Uranus, and have begun the most important series of observations culminating in his capital discovery of the relative distances of the stars from the sun and from one an- other. The art-galleries would have lost Tin- 140 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED toretto's magnificent "Crucifixion"; many of Gainsborough's finest por- traits; Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Sup- per," the third most celebrated picture in the world ; the best of Du Maurier's illustrations ; Dore's illustrations for the "Ancient Mariner"; Velasquez's "Sur- render of Breda," one of the greatest of historical paintings; Perugino's cele- brated "Pieta" ; Cruikshank's famous il- lustrations for Dickens and Ains worth; Rubens's pictures illustrating the life of Maria de' Medici, and his magnificent "Assumption of the Virgin" and "The Massacre of the Innocents"; Millet's "Angelus," "The Man with the Hoe," and "The Gleaners"; Meissonier's "Reading at Diderot's"; Rembrandt's greatest works, including the famous "Portrait of Jan Six," "John the Bap- tist in the Wilderness," and "Jacob 141 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Blessing the Sons of Joseph"; Blake's illustrations for Blair's "Grave" ; West's famous "Death on the Pale Horse"; Turner's "Decline of the Carthaginian Empire," "Hostages Leaving Carthage for Rome," and his paintings for the "Rivers of England"; Titian's "As- sumption of the Madonna," one of the most world-renowned masterpieces, the famous "Bacchus and Ariadne," "En- tombment of Christ," "St. Sebastian," and "The Three Ages"; Durer's mas- terwork, "Adoration of the Trinity by all the Saints"; Hogarth's admirable "Strolling Actresses," the famous "Marriage a la Mode," and the series of twelve plates, "Industry and Idleness"; Paul Veronese's "Feast of Simon the Leper," "Feast of Levi," and "Venice Triumphant"; Murillo's "Return of the Prodigal," "Moses Striking the Rock," 142 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED and "St. Elizabeth of Hungary"; and Landseer's well-known "Stag at Bay," "Sanctuary," "Monarch of the Glen," and "Peace and War." In music must be noted the loss of Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots"; Handel's oratorios, "De- borah" and "Athalia"; Liszt's "Third Symphonic Poem"; Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"; Beethoven's pastorals and his grand "Missa Solemnis"; Bach's "Christmas Oratorio"; Rossini's great "Stabat Mater" ; Gounod's "Faust" and "Romeo et Juliette"; the greatest of Spohr's sacred compositions, "The Last Judgment" and his oratorio, "The Cru- cifixion"; and Gluck's "Orfeo ed Eu~ ridice." From literature would be missing all of Shakspere's masterpieces and most of his plays; the last three books of Spen- ser's "Faerie Queene" and the magnifi- 143 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY cent "Epithalamion" ; Rabelais's "Pan- tagruel" and "Gargantua"; Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel" ; John Stuart Mill's masterful "Political Econ- omy"; Kingsley's "Water-babies"; De- foe's famous "Mrs. Veal"; Le Sage's "Turcaret," one of the best comedies in French literature ; Samuel Johnson's fa- mous "Rasselas" and his "Dictionary of the English Language"; Rousseau's "La Nouvelle Heloise"; "The Wander- ing Jew"; most of Scott's novels; Em- erson's "Representative Men" and the second volume of his "Essays"; Whit- tier's "Voices of Freedom" and "Songs of Labor"; Rossetti's masterpiece, "Dante's Dream" and his "Rose Mary"; Racine's famous "Esther"; Jonathan Edwards's "Freedom of the Will" ; many of Beranger's songs ; Bur- ton's marvelous "Anatomy of Melan- WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED choly"; most of Addison's essays, including his creation, "Sir Roger de Coverly" ; "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lec- tures" ; Wordsworth's "Excursion" ; Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Ro- man Empire" and his able "Memoire Justificatif"; Hume's "History of Eng- land"; Dodgson's "The Hunting of the Snark"; Hallam's "Middle Ages" and "Constitutional History of England"; "The Scarlet Letter," "Mosses from an Old Manse," "The House of the Seven Gables," "The Blithedale Romance," and "Tanglewood Tales"; Carlyle's "The French Revolution" and "Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches"; Pope's "Essay on Man"; the first two parts of "Hudibras"; the first portion of Bancroft's "History," and of Momm- sen's monumental "Corpus Inscrip- tionum Latinarum"; Lew Wallace's 10 145 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY "The Fair God"; Lamartine's "Souve- nirs of the East" ; Ranke's "Roman Pa- pacy" and "History of Germany in the Time of the Reformation"; Boehm's great "Theologia Germanica" ; most of Boucicault's plays; "Lorna Doone" and "The Maid of Sker"; the first two vol- umes of Macaulay's "History of Eng- land" and his "Lays of Ancient Rome"; Washington Irving's "Conquest of Granada" and "Life of Columbus"; Bulwer Lytton's "Harold," "The Cax- tons," and "My Novel"; the first two books of Montaigne's "Essays"; La Rochefoucauld's "Memoirs"; Trol- lope's excellent "Barchester Towers"; Ebers's "Homo Sum," "The Sisters," "The Emperor," and "Serapis"; Schil- ler's "Maria Stuart" and his great " Wil- helm Tell"; Petrarch's famous "Epistle to Posterity"; the first volume of 146 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED Thiers's "History of the Consulate and the Empire"; "Henry Esmond," "The Newcomes," and "The Virginians"; Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," "Around the World in Eighty Days," and "Hector Serva- dac"; Lowell's "Fireside Travels" and the second series of "The Biglow Pa- pers"; "The Song of Hiawatha," "The Golden Legend," and "Kavanagh"; Isaac D 'Israeli's "Calamities" and "Quarrels of Authors"; "A Tale of Two Cities," "Hard Times," "Uncom- mercial Traveller," "Great Expecta- tions," "Little Dorrit," and "Bleak House"; Sir Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia"; Schopenhauer's "Will in Nature"; Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic" and "History of the United Netherlands"; "The Deserted Village" and "She Stoops to Conquer"; Gray's 147 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY great odes, "The Bard" and "Progress of Poetry" ; Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella" and "Conquest of Mexico"; Milman's "History of Christianity un- der the Empire"; "Handy Andy" and "Treasure Trove"; Du Chaillu's "Land of the Midnight Sun"; "Pilgrim's Progress"; "Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers"; Henry Fielding's "History of Tom Jones" and "Ame- lia"; Daudet's famous "Sapho" and "Port-Tarascon"; Balzac's "Modeste Mignon" and "Beatrix"; Steele's fa- mous political paper, "The Plebeian," and his successful comedy, "The Con- scious Lovers"; Michelet's "History of the Roman Republic" and "The Jesu- its"; Condorcet's lives of Turgot and Voltaire and his famous "Historic Table of the Progress of the Human Soul"; Farrar's lives of Christ and St. Paul; 14-8 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED \ "The Moonstone" and "The New Mag- dalen"; Matthew Arnold's "Essays in Criticism," "St. Paul and Protestant- ism," "Literature and Dogma," and many of his poems; Spurgeon's "Com- mentary on the Psalms"; Corneille's "Heraclius," "Nicomede," and "An- dromede"; the first collection of La Fontaine's "Fables" and the famous "Books of theContes"; Dryden's "Mar- riage a la Mode," "Love in a Nunnery," "CBdipus," and his best drama, "All for Love"; Cooper's "The Pathfinder," and "The Bravo"; Ben Jonson's "Book of Epigrams" ; Richter's masterpiece, "Flegeljahre"; Reade's "Never Too Late to Mend," "The Cloister and the Hearth," and "Hard Cash"; Tenny- son's "In Memoriam," "Charge of the Light Brigade," "Maud," and "Idylls of the King"; Willis's "People I Have 149 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY, Met" and "Famous Persons and Places"; Lessing's "History and Liter- ature" and "Nathan the Wise"; Eras- mus's "Adagia" and "Edition of the Greek Testament with Corrected Latin Version and Notes"; Voltaire's "La Pucelle"; Ruskin's fifth volume of "Modern Painters," his popular "Ses- ame and Lilies," "Ethics of the Dust," and "Crown of Wild Olives"; Dean Alford's Edition of the Greek Testa- ment, with running commentary; Fichte's remarkable "Treatise on Sci- ence"; the first series of Sainte-Beuve's celebrated "Monday" articles; Machia- velli's famous "II Principe"; Chateau- briand's "Rene" and "Adventures of the Last of the Abencerages" ; Max Miil- ler's "Chips from a German Work- shop" and "Introduction to the Science of Religion"; Leibnitz's "History of 150 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED the Brunswick-Liineburg Family"; the first and second volumes of Froude's "History of England"; Holmes's "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table"; Freeman's masterpiece, "History of the Norman Conquest"; Chalmers's cele- brated work in defense of endowment, literary and ecclesiastical; most of Watt's hymns; Goethe's "Tasso," his great "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" and the noted "Hermann und Doro- thea" ; Parkman's "Pioneers of France in the New World," "Jesuits in North America," and "The Discovery of the Great West"; Guizot's famous "His- tory of Civilization in France" ; the best of Moliere's works; Thomson's "Castle of Indolence"; Fenelon's famous "Ad- ventures of Telemaque"; the first and second volumes of Stanley's "History of the Jewish Church" and his "Sinai 151 and Palestine" ; the first six volumes of Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and the first series of "Sermons by Yorick"; Penn's "History of the Quakers" and the first volume of "Fruits of Soli- tude" ; and Young's "Love of Fame the Universal Passion." SUMMARY WHAT more need be said? Were the impossible to come to pass, and the work of the veterans of life subtracted from the "sum of human achievement," the world would not be virtually where it is to-day. Well has the gist of the matter been condensed in the words of a medi- cal contemporary : "In one respect at least the man of in- tellectual capacity and pursuits is much better off than his brother who works 152 WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED with his hands. In the world of manual labor the pitiful dictum seems well es- tablished that at forty the laborer is 'a dead one' ; he must not hope for employ- ment or a wage after that period. The intellectual man, however, despite the expression of a famous colleague, main- tains the vigor of his mind unabated almost until he is ready to step into his grave ; and if by this means he gains his livelihood, then need he not fear the lack of employment or emoluments even though his years be far advanced." 153 CHAPTER VI GENIUS AND INSANITY ONE of the noted brain specialists of the present day, himself a man of much more than ordinary ability, Profes- sor Horatio C. Wood of the University of Pennsylvania, has been credited with the statement that "every man of genius is insane," but, as the distinguished southern physician, L. G. Pedigo, has shown, the popular association of genius with insanity can be traced to the earliest periods of antiquity. Thus, while Dry- den wrote, "Great wit to madness nearly is allied," the philosophic Aristotle, who was as close an observer as he was a great philosopher and thinker, re- 154 GENIUS AND INSANITY marked: "Men, illustrious in poetry, politics, and arts, have often been mel- ancholic and mad like Ajax, or misan- thropic like Bellerophon." These men but voiced a general observation, and it must be conceded, therefore, that the high degree of mentality popularly desig- nated as genius is acquired, or possessed, at the expense of perfect mental equi- librium. What is actually meant by this popu- lar idea can be more scientifically expressed as a lack of balance in the cerebrational powers due to an exces- sive specialization with a corresponding over-development of a certain few of the brain cells. As a consequence of this over-stimulation of a limited por- tion of the brain with a necessary neg- lect of the rest, brilliancy of intellect in one direction may be most incongru- 155 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY ously associated with deficient judg- ment in another direction, while the most unexpected and "sulphitic" manifesta- tions of brain power will often astonish and delight the associates of these men of genius. So long as these scintilla- tions of wit do not assume outre charac- ters or become morbid in their effects upon their originators or hearers, they must be regarded as entirely physiologic, and they then become the most desirable traits of genius. It is to these brilliant men and women that we owe the bom mots of literature and the bewildering strokes of genius that have revolution- ized the sciences and the arts. These individuals become the gifted orators, the spell-binding writers, the renowned statesmen, and the wizard-like inventors and "doers of deeds." Often they are brilliant in spite of themselves, and are 156 GENIUS AND INSANITY as astounded at their accomplishments as are their less talented companions. When the realm of eccentricity is reached, however, we may consider that genius and insanity are overlapping. It would appear, therefore, that while every man of genius is not insane, genius and insanity are border-lands the one to the other, and it is but a step across. It was Emerson, I believe, who said, "Genius does what it must, talent what it can." The work of a true genius is done irrespective of his volition there- fore it is genius ; while the work of voli- tion is labor only, and is often though not always vastly inferior to the spon- taneous creation of the mind. Who can deliberately think out brilliancy of re- partee? It must come quickly, uncon- sciously, without labor therefore is it 157 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY brilliant and charming. The normal man is conscious, volitional; the abnormal or insane man is unconscious, involun- tary. The more readily the former can pass into the involuntary, unconscious state the more nearly does he approach the condition of insanity. Now, if true genius is the result of the involuntary action of the mind, it stands to reason that it is closely allied to, if not partaker of, the insane state. In other words, it must be at the border-line between sanity and insanity that true genius is to be found ; therefore it is not remarkable, nor is it to be wondered at, that these men of genius are frequently the vic- tims of habits or whims that seem pecu- liar and abnormal to their saner com- panions. Not every genius, however, is afflicted with these peculiar or un- pleasant traits; therefore not every 158 GENIUS AND INSANITY genius has planted his foot across the border-line of insanity, although it may be but a matter of months or years be- fore he does so. So long as his voli- tional powers are able to govern and direct the subconscious genius he is a sane man endowed with brilliancy of intellect. When the will is no longer supreme and fails to restrain the sub- liminal consciousness the latter runs riot, and the man of genius has overstepped the boundary-line of sanity. THE TYPES OF GENIUS THESE individuals of genius comprise two distinct types of men, differing in all their characteristics save that of men- tal superiority. "Moody" men they often are these men of genius. Yet not all. Plodders many of them have 159 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY been, and while deep in the monotony of their plodding has the flash of genius illuminated the page, the canvas, or the work-bench. Thus it is recorded of Trollope, the practical "plodder," that he abhorred the expression "waiting for inspiration" to write. He claimed that a shoemaker or a tallow-chandler might just as well await the moment of in- spiration for cobbling or melting the tallow. He agreed with Dickens and Scott and Bulwer and Johnson that per- sistent and unremitting labor will bring its reward in excellent and truly in- spired work. It is said that frequently Dickens, when he felt least inclined to do so, would take up his pen and liter- ally drive himself to write until, under the inspiration of the effort, the foun- tain would be let loose and the words would crowd themselves upon the paper. 160 GENIUS AND INSANITY How different this from Thackeray, who would destroy sheet after sheet of manuscript until seized by the inspira- tion, when he would scribble off pages of finished composition without a mo- ment's hesitation. So there have been certain orators whose best addresses were delivered without preparation and when their authors were under the influ- ence of mild alcoholic stimulation. Men and women with highly devel- oped emotional natures, as George Eliot, are especially subject to the influ- ence of inspiration in their work. It is well known that George Eliot at times became so absorbed in her task that it seemed to her some other personality than herself was wielding the pen. Her imaginary characters for the time being became real to her, and it was while un- der this obsession she did her best work. 11 161 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Samuel Johnson, on the other hand, claimed that any one could compel him- self to produce good and even excellent work by setting himself "doggedly to it," and Francis Parkman is a striking example of this class of genius, working as he did for half a century against physical limitations that were almost in- superable. These two classes of great men stand in vivid contrast the moody, emotional, "inspired" group, who now and then be- wilder the world with lightning-like strokes of genius that reveal the untold possibilities of their minds, while in the intervals they are dejected, inert, and non-productive; and the sturdy "plod- ders," who by mere force of their supe- rior will keep persistently at work and flood the intellectual world with valu- able effusions of wit, science, art, and 162 GENIUS AND INSANITY literature. With unremitting toil these latter become the great producers of the world, whose products form the bulwarks of intellectual development. Draper, Darwin, Dickens, Humboldt, and Car- lyle were typical plodders, while Poe, Byron, Eliot, and Stephenson belonged to the moody and inspirational type of genius. WHIMS OF GREAT MEN AT considerable expense of time and labor I have collected many of the queer fancies, antipathies, and striking pecu- liarities of the great men of the world. A mere perusal of this list will conclu- sively demonstrate the close relationship which exists between genius and in- sanity. These whims have taken various forms. Thus, while in many instances the aberration has appeared as a violent 163 THE AGE 'OF MENTAL VIRILITY and unreasonable antipathy or aversion, in others it has assumed some notable eccentricity in dress or manner, while yet again the mental condition is shown in some unusual fancy as to methods of living and working. Without any ef- fort at explanation the curious facts are presented here just as they have been culled from literature. ANTIPATHIES OF THE GREAT FEAR has played an important role in the development of the antipathies of the great fear that was often ground- less in its origin and inexplicable in its manifestation. Thus, Marshal Saxe, for whom the horrors of a battle-field had no terror, was thrown into conster- nation and fled at sight of a cat, while Henry III of France entertained such 164- GENIUS AND INSANITY an aversion to cats that he fainted when he saw one, and the Duke of Schom- berg, a soldier of repute, refused to sit in the same room with a feline. This aversion to cats is probably one of the most common dislikes of the great. It is reported that a courtier of the Em- peror Ferdinand suffered a bleeding from the nose whenever he heard the mewing of a cat, and a well-known offi- cer of the English army during the reign of Queen Victoria, the hero of numerous campaigns, always turned pale at the sight of a cat, and could even tell when one was in his vicinity though unseen. The unaccountable fear of dogs is not so common, although it is said that De Musset cordially detested them, and Goethe despised them, not- withstanding, forsooth, he kept a tame snake. Much more frequent is the fear 165 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY. of spiders, centipedes, and other insects. Charles Kingsley, thorough naturalist though he was, entertained an uncon- querable horror of spiders, even the common house-spider; Turenne became weak when he saw a spider ; while the au- thor of the "Turkish Spy" once asserted that he would far prefer with sword in hand "to face a lion in his desert lair than to have a spider crawl over him in the dark." Lord Lauderdale, on the con- trary, while declaring that the mewing of a cat was "sweeter to him than any music," had a most intense dislike for the lute and the bagpipe ; and Dr. John- son was so fond of his cats that he would personally buy oysters for them, his servants being too proud to do so. Rousseau, the philosopher Hobbes, and Sir Samuel Romilly dreaded the approach of night ; the former was ter- 166 GENIUS AND INSANITY ror-stricken in the dark, Hobbes in- sisted upon keeping a light in his bed- room all night, while Romilly invariably looked under the bed to assure himself no one was concealed there. Voltaire, the bold and fearless one, was thrown into mortal terror at the sound of the cawing of rooks, while Julius Caesar was almost driven into convulsions by the sound of thunder, and St. Thomas Aquinas suffered veritable agony dur- ing a thunder-storm. While Montaigne preferred odd numbers, he refused to sit down to a table with thirteen people, and had a strong aversion for Friday, as did also Byron who, brilliant though he was, believed in omens, dreams, ap- paritions, and presentiments. Talley- rand and Queen Elizabeth felt such a fear of death that neither of them would permit the word to be uttered in their 167 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY presence, and, strange though it would seem, the father of the Russian navy, Peter the Great, shuddered at the sight of water. He would never enter the beautiful palace-gardens because the river Mosera flowed through them, and when out driving he commanded his coachman to avoid all roads that ran by streams. If compelled to cross a bridge or a small brook the emperor would close the carriage windows and become drenched in a cold perspiration. Boyle was thrown into convulsions by the sound of water dropping from a faucet. James I of England detested tobacco and pork, and the sight of a drawn sword would throw him into a fit of ter- ror. When giving the accolade he inva- riably turned his face away, and on one occasion, as a result of this peculiarity, almost wounded the new-made knight. 168 GENIUS AND INSANITY Even flowers have not escaped the aversion of some. Thus, Vincent, the painter, was seized with vertigo and swooned at the smell of a rose, and to the Countess of Lamballe a violet was a thing of horror. Scaliger states that one of his relatives became ill at the sight of a lily, and he himself could not drink milk, and would turn pale when he was confronted by water-cresses. The secretary to Francis I was com- pelled to stop his nostrils with bread or leave the room if an apple was on the table. Erasmus became feverish if he saw a sea-fish. Marshal d'Albret be- came nauseated when he looked on a boar's head. Tycho Brahe trembled and shook at the knees at the sight of a hare, and the Duke of Eperon fainted at the sight of a leveret. 169 NOTABLE ECCENTRICITIES OF THE GREAT THE eccentricity of Goldsmith took the form of dandyism, and who does not remember the story of his peach-blossom coat ? This is in striking contrast to the aged and diminutive Thiers, he was scarcely over four feet in height, who would not don the colored scarf of honor for fear it would make him look like a "Punch and Judy President." The farmer Grevy also had a strong aversion to uniforms and colors, and was pronounced the plainest-looking magis- trate from Washington to Berne. It irked him, it is said, to wear even the funereal black with the cordon of the Legion over his breast. Some of the relaxations of the great 170 GENIUS AND INSANITY have consisted in simple and even ridicu- lous sports. Thus it is said that Shelley would consume an entire day in floating tiny paper boats on any water he chanced to be near. When he thought he was in need of a little activity the great logician, Samuel Clarke, would leap over tables and chairs, frequently to their irreparable damage, while Car- dinal Richelieu, the dictator of kings, found pleasure and amusement in jumping and leaping with boys. The learned Petavius would find refresh- ment in twirling his chair round for five minutes at the expiration of every two hours; while the most innocent amuse- ment of King Charles II consisted in feeding the ducks in St. James's Park and in rearing the beautiful spaniels which bear his name. The Puritan Cromwell frequently indulged in blind- 171 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY man's-buff with his daughters and at- tendants; and the poet Cowper built bird-cages and consumed many an hour in feeding his hares. Nothing delighted Henry IV of France more than ram- bling about in disguise among the peas- antry; while Salvator Rosa would assume the character of a mountebank in extempore comedies in the streets of Rome. Spinoza, the weighty philoso- pher, passed his idle hours in setting spiders fighting, and would laugh im- moderately at their strange antics ; while the celebrated librarian to the Duke of Tuscany, Antonio Magliabechi, culti- vated the spiders which thronged his apartments and would caution his visit- ors not to injure them. Tycho Brahe amused himself by polishing spectacle- glasses ; and Joseph Jefferson, ex-Pres- ident Cleveland, and Paley, the erudite 172 GENIUS AND INSANITY author of "Natural Theology," found health and relaxation in the fishing-rod ; while the unfortunate Louis XVI whiled away his time at locksmithing. It is said that Beethoven kept himself the constant victim of a cold by his inor- dinate love for cold water, in which he would splash and dabble at all hours of the day until his room was swamped and the water oozed through the flooring to the ceiling beneath. He would also take daily walks barefooted in the dewy fields. THE FANCIES OF AUTHORS VERY curious and extremely interesting have been the methods adopted by au- thors in the preparation of their books. It is said that Scott wrote his finest works before breakfast while his friends 173 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY were enjoying their morning naps; while Coleridge could never compose so happily as when "walking over uneven ground, or making his way through a coppice with the twigs brushing his face." Wordsworth, on the contrary, composed most of his later poems while wandering up and down a straight gravel walk. Probably the most re- markable authorial whim was that en- joyed in common by the English poet, John Philips, and the great Dutch scholar, Isaak Vossius, son of the learned Gerardus Johannes Vossius. These men, strange to relate, found their greatest inspiration while a servant was combing their hair. Milton claimed he could not compose satisfactorily except between the spring and fall equinoxes, during which time he thought his poetry was inspired. The poets Thomson, Gray, 174 GENIUS AND INSANITY and Collins believed that their inspira- tion came during this same period and could not write at other times. Accord- ing to Crabbe's son, who has published an excellent biography of that poet, his father "fancied that autumn was on the whole the most favorable season for him in the composition of poetry, but there was something in the eif ect of a sudden fall of snow that appeared to stimulate him in a very extraordinary manner. It was during a great snow-storm that, shut up in his room, he wrote almost cur- rente calamo his 'Sir Eustace Gray'." It is well known that Southey could write only when surrounded by his books and other familiar objects. The purring of Montaigne's cat, which he stroked with his left hand while he wrote, stimulated him to produce his finest "Essays." Most remarkable were 175 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY the whims of Hogg, the Ettrick Shep- herd, and Graham, the author of "The Sabbath," who, as De Quincey relates, could not write satisfactorily unless fully booted and spurred ; while, accord- ing to Horace Walpole, Lord Orrery found no stimulus to work so effica- cious as a sharp attack of the gout. Lord Bacon, it is said, could do his best work when inhaling the fumes of a bot- tle of claret poured out on newly up- turned earth. Buffon was mentally helpless without a spotless shirt and a starched frill; while William Prynne, the talented author of the "Histrio- mastrix," was nothing "without a long quilted cap which came an inch over his eyes." Equally as curious as these is the custom of one of the distinguished novelists of to-day who can create only when sitting surrounded by lighted 176 candles in a darkened room. Before Gray would attempt to compose he in- variably read some cantos of the "Faerie Queene," and Corneille would precede his effusions by the perusal of "Lucan." Physical and gastric stimulation were necessary to many celebrities in order that their minds could best func- tionate. Thus it is said that the ancient philosopher, Carneades, dosed himself well with hellebore before writing. De Musset was helpless without absinthe, while De Quincey, Coleridge, Psalma- naazar, Shadwell, Dean Milner, and Bishop Horsley invariably wrote under the stimulation of opium. Blackstone never wrote without a flask of port wine at his side, nor Schiller without his Rhen- ish wine; while it was necessary that they become intoxicated before ^Eschy- lus, Eupolis, Cratinus, and Ennius 12 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY could compose. The fumes of tobacco were necessary to stimulate the brains of Hobbes, Dr. Parr, and Boxhorne, the great Dutch scholar. "Ten or twelve pipes with a candle," were inva- riably present on Hobbes' desk; while Boxhorne, who preferred a long pipe, devised a hat with an enormous brim which depended before his face and which was perforated to support the stem of the pipe so that the author could have undisputed use of his hands. Fuseli and Dryden ate raw meat to assist their imagination, and the latter frequently had himself bled with the same object in view. DIETARY HABITS OF FAMOUS MEN As might be expected from the fore- going review as well as from a general 178 GENIUS AND INSANITY knowledge of mankind, curious habits of eating have distinguished many of the famous men of the world. Thus, while every one knows that John the Baptist preferred locusts and wild honey as his daily food, it is not so gen- erally known that the Evangelist John was so abstemious that a handful of barley sufficed him for a day, and that Mohammed was content with a handful of dates and a mouthful of water after a day of hard riding. In fact, abstem- iousness seems to have been a very com- mon trait among the great, and it may be that much of their greatness de- pended upon this very habit, for a repleted system is not conducive to mental or physical activity. Pope Pius IX required but an egg and a piece of bread for his breakfast; Michelangelo during the greater portion of his life 179 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY subsisted on the plain food of an Italian peasant; Leonardo da Vinci contented himself at any meal with bread and oranges; Francis Bacon never ate more than one or two simple dishes at a meal ; Locke considered that for a studious man a piece of fish with bread formed a proper breakfast; Raphael lived prin- cipally on figs and raisins and other dried fruits, with bread ; and Alexander the Great, when on a campaign, partook of the rations of a common soldier. On the other hand, there were some celebrated men who were connoisseurs of eating and who enjoyed certain spe- cial dishes according to the peculiarities of their gustatory nerves. Thus Peter the Great regarded baked goose stuffed with apples as the piece de resistance par excellence, and Fielding thought 180 GENIUS AND INSANITY that tarts made with currant jelly were "heaven's own food." Rare Ben Jonson asked no better treat than a pork pie with an abun- dance of Canary wine, and Macaulay claimed that no man need ask for better food than plain roast beef and baked potatoes. Whose mouth has not watered at the luscious repasts described by Dickens, who doubtless portrayed his own cultivated taste in eating? It is said that Henry VIII frequently ate himself into a condition of drowsi- ness on a haunch of venison, and Walter Scott preferred venison to any other meat, and potatoes to any other vegeta- ble. Kaulbach's favorite dish was sauer- kraut and pork, and Frederick the Great enjoyed immensely a meal of cabbage with salt beef or pork. The Duke of 181 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY Maryborough on one occasion declared that "no soldier can fight unless he is properly fed on beef and beer." Vitel- lius, the Roman Emperor, and Napo- leon Bonaparte were both heavy eaters. The latter was not at all choice in his gastronomic habits, but would eat rav- enously of whatever lay nearest to him on the table; while the Roman emperor would eat copiously until filled, and then would take an emetic and repeat the performance to his own satisfaction, doubtless, but to the intense disgust of his contemporaries and of countless gen- erations since. THE NEUROSES OF THE GREAT IF the foregoing array of whimsical fancies were not sufficient to demon- strate the kinship of genius and insan- 182 GENIUS AND INSANITY ity, there is a still more pathologic aspect of genius which has attracted the attention of both the medical and the non-medical world. It is a curious fact that a very large percentage of the nota- bles of the world's history have been the subjects of epilepsy, catalepsy, and other major nervous affections. Be- cause of this intimate association of mental disease with brilliancy of intel- lect genius itself has, by many neurolo- gists, been regarded as a neurosis. Balzac pays tribute to the truthfulness of this observation in his notable presen- tation of "Louis Lambert," and in his still greater philosophical novel, "Sera- phita." Lombroso, Pedigo, and others, who have themselves been free from this neurotic taint, have thoroughly searched the literature of the subject, and we, as scientists, are deeply indebted to them 183 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY for their great 'work in this line. It is interesting to note that the brilliant Charles Lamb, who most pathetically endeavored to disprove any such rela- tionship between genius and insanity, and who was himself a pronounced neu- rotic, was at times incarcerated in a sanitarium, and in the intervals spent a life of devotion in behalf of his insane and epileptic sister. If the genius himself was not a sub- ject of one of these nervous affections, a strong family history could frequently be traced either in his own generation or in the generations immediately pre- ceding. The neurosis most commonly assumed the type of epilepsy or the "falling sickness," although hysteria, catalepsy, St. Vitus's dance, idiocy, dualism, or dual personality, deaf -mut- ism, alcoholism, subconscious cerebra- 184 GENIUS AND INSANITY tion, and periodic insanity were frequent occurrences. This association of genius with families and individuals of the grave neurotic type is a curious phe- nomenon, and it doubtless largely influ- enced Lombroso to assume the advanced position he has taken which regards genius as "essentially an epileptiform neurosis." Did every genius who failed himself to manifest some grave neurotic affection have offspring, it is very prob- able that an unusually large proportion of them would develop some form of hereditary neurosis. A wise provision of Providence has intervened, however, for it is a noteworthy fact that the lines of great men most generally become ex- tinct with them or their sons. A mere superficial investigation of the subject will bear out the accuracy of this obser- vation. 185 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY THE NEUROSES OF HISTORY THIS is too vast a subject to treat largely at this time, and all that can be attempted is to call attention to the direct proofs of the truthfulness of the relationship existing between genius and certain nervous affections in the nu- merous historical instances which may have escaped the attention of the aver- age reader. In doing this the writings of Lombroso, Pedigo, and others have been searched for the most remarkable and striking cases that have been re- corded. It would appear that almost all the bright lights of ancient times were neu- rotic. "Socrates," writes Pedigo, "pre- sented one of the most interesting studies in dual personality and subcon- 186 GENIUS AND INSANITY scious conditions in all history in his memorable dcemon, which he said guided him and inspired him with wisdom." Brutus and Julius Csesar were victims of hallucinations, and the latter was a pronounced epileptic and subject also to attacks of vertigo in the midst of his public work. Petrarch was an epileptic, as was also Mohammed, who, in addi- tion, at times during the heat of battle became a raving maniac. Peter the Great was afflicted with epileptic con- vulsions, and an attack would be in- duced by the sight of certain colors. Paganini was both epileptic and cata- leptic. Martin Luther was subject to hallucinations, during one attack of which he is said to have thrown the his- toric inkstand. Chateaubriand, Thomas Campbell, and Samuel Johnson showed varying degrees of St. Vitus's dance, 187 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY or at least were subject to choreic move- ments. Napoleon, Oliver Cromwell, Shelley, Malebranche, Swedenborg, Bunyan, Hobbes, Columbus, Goethe, Samuel Johnson, and Descartes suf- fered at certain periods of their lives from hallucinations. Voltaire was a hypochondriac and the great Darwin gave a neurotic family history. Sir Isaac Walton had delusions of perse- cution, and Rousseau's confessions prove his insanity, which was still more conclusively demonstrated at the au- topsy. Cowper, Poe, and Lincoln were melancholic. Byron's father committed suicide while insane, and the poet him- self was a subject of melancholia and hallucinations. Napoleon believed in the dominance of his star; Richelieu, Dean Swift, Flaubert, the novelist, Mo- zart, Pascal, Handel, Schiller, Napo- 188 GENIUS AND INSANITY Icon, Charles V, and Moliere were all epileptic, and Dean Swift eventually developed an incurable insanity. John Ruskin had attacks of ungovernable rage, and spent some years in an asylum; Herbert Spencer was the vic- tim of a fixed delusion. This remarkable record is more than a mere coincidence. It must be looked upon as a positive proof of the close intimacy that exists between genius and the neurotic temperament. 189 CHAPTER VII THE BRAIN OF GENIUS THE old theory that weight of brain endows its possessor with superior faculties has long since been discarded. Sims has demonstrated conclusively that many celebrated men possessed brains having a lesser weight than the brain of ordinary mortals or even of idiots. The brilliant Gambetta had a brain which did not equal in weight that of the average child, while the brains of Agassiz, Byron, Daniel Webster, Napo- leon, and other great men did not ex- ceed in weight those of the ordinary commonplace man. A curious fact is 190 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS that heavy as it was, the brain of Tur- genieff , the Russian novelist, was greatly exceeded in weight by that of an igno- rant laboring man. All of which will go to prove that a heavy brain is no criterion of a person's intellectuality, nor does a light brain denote inferior mental capacity. Sims advocated the theory that the colder the climate the larger is the brain. Marchand, in some very interesting studies, has demon- strated that there is no constant relation between body weight and brain weight. In general, the weight of the brain is greater between the ages of twenty and sixty than between sixty and eighty. In estimating the mental capacity of a brain it is necessary to consider qualita- tive conditions and morphologic supe- riority as well as, and in preference to, the weight of the organ. 191 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY MORPHOLOGIC PECULIARITIES OF THE BRAIN OF GENIUS THE preeminent morphologic peculiari- ties of brains characterized in life by high intellectuality are three. These are, probably in the order of their im- portance as far as our present limited knowledge of the brain will permit us- to assume : the number of the connecting fibers, the number and depth of the con- volutions, and the number of the gray cells. This is in reverse order to the popular idea that multiplicity of gray cells is most important in order that the individual attain to a high degree of mentality. It goes without saying that a deficiency of these working cells of 192 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS the brain will indicate inferiority in mental action, and it is well known that monkeys and apes and the lower races, as well as idiots and certain degenerates, show such a lack of gray cells. But given two hypothetic individuals of the highest races and with the utmost de- gree of cerebral development, and that one showing the larger number of con- necting fibers will manifest the higher degree of cerebrational power. These fibers indicate that such a man has had better coordinating power whereby he could call into play a larger number of combinations of cells than could his brother who was compelled to depend more upon the individual action of the various gray cells, equally numerous though they might have been. This view is still further carried out by the studies of comparative anato- 13 193 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY mists, who agree in stating that in no other species of animal life are the cere- bral connecting fibers so numerous and complicated as in man. As is well known, even by the laymen, there is a great connecting band between the two halves of the upper brain known as the "hard body" or corpus callosum. Now, in direct line with the course of reason- ing already given come the investiga- tions of Spitzka and other brain experts who assert that this body is much larger, broader, and deeper in men of great in- telligence than in men of average mental ability. If this be true, and there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the ob- servation, it can have but one significa- tion: the telegraphic wires, so to speak, between the correlated gray cells of either cerebral half are multiplied, and by the mere physical law of bulk require 194 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS more space for their transmission. Ac- cordingly, the cerebral impulses can be switched through a greater number of channels than in the individual less for- tunate in his number of connecting- bands. The relation of this "brainy" individual to his fellow of smaller cere- bral capacity may be compared to that of a full-diapason organ as contrasted with an instrument having a smaller number of pipes. He is brighter, broader, and better. An examination of the brains of mon- keys, higher apes, and men shows an- other striking morphologic peculiarity, namely, a progressive increase in the number, depth and tortuosity of the fissures, and a corresponding multipli- cation of the convolutions of the brain, according to the position of the indi- vidual in the scale of physical and men- 195 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY tal evolution. In other words, men possess brains that are more fissured and convoluted than are the brains of the other higher primates, and, again in line with the course of reasoning we have pursued, men of the higher Caucasian and Mongolian races show a greater degree of fissuration and convolution than do men of the lower types, as the Hottentots and Bushmen. This condi- tion necessarily affords a greater sur- face extent over which the gray substance of the brain must be spread, and therefore indicates a corresponding increase in the number of the gray cells present in the brain. If, in addition to this surface expansion, there is noted, as is true in men of high mentality, an increased depth or thickness of the gray matter, we have again a greater number of gray cells present, with a necessary 196 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS increase in the cerebrational power of the individual. All of which would seem to prove the older theory of superior brain weight associated with superior mentality. There is, however, another element which comes in to modify this conclu- sion, and that is the quality of the tex- ture of the brain. It is here that the seeming error occurs. Men of extreme erudition have been found with brain weights below the average. In such cases undoubtedly the fineness of the texture of the cells and connecting fibers must be taken into consideration. There is neither a deficiency of the brain cells nor an inferior number of connecting bands, but a delicacy of structure which results in a smaller bulk of the brain when considered en masse. The general principle remains true, 197 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY however, that a large brain as a rule in- dicates superior brain force. It is this truth which establishes the supremacy of man over all other animal creation. INFLUENCE OF THE BODY ON THE BRAIN THERE are other disturbing elements which must be eliminated in order to ar- rive at a satisfactory conclusion as to the proper relationship existing between brain weight and great mentality. Thus, as has already been noted, the heav- iest brain recorded was that taken from an ignorant laboring man. This may have been a brain pregnant with latent possibilities but which, owing to environmental defects such as extreme poverty or depressing and uncultured surroundings, was never given the op- portunity of educational development. 198 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS Doubtless many a brain of genius has been snowed under by adverse circum- stances and never found the chance to demonstrate its inherent abilities. Again, a brain of unusual weight may be the seat of some pathologic formation, as a tumor or an excessive hardening from an overgrowth of the fibrous tissue, whereby the specific gravity of the organ has been vastly increased over the nor- mal. I have seen such a brain, the over- weight of which resulted from the pres- ence of a tuberculous growth which had been the cause of death. On the other hand, it is quite possible to conceive the case of an individual who has won fame in a particular line of work as the result of a remarkable specialization and de- velopment of a limited number of brain cells, while the great mass of his brain tissue has suffered from neglect and 199 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY may be quite deficient in every respect. Naturally, such a brain would be under weight, and yet its owner find his place among the great of the world. This was true of the brilliant French orator, Gambetta, who lacked many of the characteristics of even an ordinary brain development. The general law is pretty conclusively established that "all organs are in relation to function," and a brain that is persistently and syste- matically used must be larger and more productive than one which is allowed to "run to seed" and atrophy from disuse. In addition, in a study of this kind, there must be carried in mind the natu- ral association between body weight and brain weight, and the effect upon the size of the brain exerted by age, stature, sex, and condition of health. As bearing upon this aspect of the sub- 200 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS ject mention should be made of the work of Dr. A. Adam, of Paris, and Pro- fessor Lombroso. Adam concludes that "in general the weight of brain in man is greater than in woman," al- though he hastens to assert, probably for his own safety and peace of mind, that this does not mean that certain women may not possess heavier brains than men. He also finds that "height has an effect on brain weight, and mus- cular and bone development play their part." Lombroso has pointed out "that the great majority of men of genius are to be found in either of two classes the tallest or the shortest. Among men of average mental attainments the greater number are of average height of this class 16 per cent, are of high, 16 per cent, of low, and 68 per cent, of medium stature. Turning to men of genius, 37 201 ABB. I. VVOLBABST, M, D. * Wth Street, tf. Y. THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY per cent, are low, 41 per cent, high, and only 22 per cent, medium. Examples of short geniuses are Epictetus, George Eliot, and A. C. Swinburne; of the tall variety are Petrarch, Goethe, and Ten- nyson. Nutrition has an important effect on the condition of the brain, and Adam quotes Matiegka as observing a differ- ence of 36 grams in favor of well nour- ished persons. It must not be con- cluded, however, that in every instance this increased brain weight necessarily implies greater brain capacity, but probably a larger amount of blood and serum in the tissues. Of stout geniuses may be mentioned Victor Hugo, Renan, Lee, Rossini, and Balzac; of thin are Pascal, Kepler, Voltaire, and Giotto. Disease, especially when associated with hemorrhage, has a decided effect in 203 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS lessening the weight of the brain, while mental diseases will have a varied effect according to whether or not they are associated with atrophy or hypertrophy of the brain structure. It is interesting to note Adam's clas- sification of brain weights into six groups according to occupation, begin- ning with day-laborers, who have the smallest brain weight ; men with regular trades ; domestic servants ; business men ; artists, professors, and musicians; and men engaged in higher forms of intel- lectual activity, as scientists. In these different groups the average brain weight was found to be respectively 1410, 1433, 1435, 1449, 1469, and 1500 grams. Most men of genius have a high brain capacity. Thus, Lebon, on ex- amining the skulls of twenty-six Frenchmen of genius, found that they 203 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY yielded an average capacity of 1732 cubic centimeters a little more than 300 in excess of the average. On the other hand, of the brains of twelve famous Germans studied by Wagner and Buchoff, eight had either a decid- edly low or a very high capacity. D61- linger, for instance, had a capacity of only 1207 cubic centimeters, and Liebig 1352 cubic centimeters. BRAIN CAPACITY AND THE FACIAL INDEX OTHER morphologic characteristics of the head that are supposed to have a direct bearing upon the brain are the facial index and the shape of the skull. It is a well recognized truth that the size of the facial index is directly asso- ciated with the degree of mental capac- 204 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS ity. In other words, the greater the index the higher the mentality. This would seem to indicate that prognath- ism, or forward protrusion of the jaw, decreases with the higher development of the brain, and it stands to reason that this must be so. For as the size of the brain increases, the skullcap must de- velop in order to accommodate the think- ing-organ, and the greater the breadth and length of the skullcap the greater the facial angle and the less the prog- nathism. This law is modified some- what by the degree of development of the masticatory muscles and this by the size and weight of the jaw. So that individuals with heavy jawbones and large teeth may be more or less prog- nathic and still show a high degree of mentality, as was the case of the natu- ralist Cope, who was markedly prog- 205 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY nathic. The general law remains true, however, and in men of high mentality we look for an approximation of the facial contour to the original embryonic orthognathism, that is, to a facial index of 90. DOLICHOCEPHALISM AND MENTALITY JUST why it is, as has been asserted by some, that the brains of many of these great thinkers should show a tendency to assume the elongated elliptical form with the longer axis lying anteroposte- riorly is more difficult to determine. The frequency of decided dolichoceph- alism, as it is called, or "long-headed- ness," among great men is, at least, sug- gestive. That it is not a necessary con- comitant of large cerebral capacity is borne out by the fact that the Esqui- 206 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS maux and the negroes of West Africa are dolichocephalic, while many men of great mental capacity have been decid- edly round-headed. That the long head is quite common among the great men is true, however, and it will make an inter- esting investigation to ascertain the fre- quency by percentage of the two types of heads among the thinkers and work- ers of the world. By many it is believed that the shape of the skull, whether round or long, has no relation to the intellectual faculty, and this belief will probably be verified by subsequent re- searches. SIZE OF HEAD AND MENTALITY AGAIN, it cannot be stated with any de- gree of positivism that men who wear the larger sizes of hats are brainier, man 207 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY for man, than those who wear the smaller sizes. There are certain morbid condi- tions of the brain in infancy and child- hood which result in varying degrees of oversize of the head without a corre- sponding degree of mental development, but in which there is an actual deteriora- tion of the brain substance. There is, on the other hand, a condition of pre- mature union of the bones of the head which results in an extreme undersize of the head known as microcephaly, and which is always associated with more or less pronounced idiocy. Again, the size of the normal head does not bear an un- swerving relationship and proportion to the size of the body, a corporeally small man often having a normally large head or the reverse, the mentality reaching the average or above in either instance. In a study of mentality all these modi- 208 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS fying influences must be carefully in- vestigated and assigned their proper relationship to the subject in hand. THE DEGREE OF INDIVIDUAL MENTAL EQUIPMENT IN direct line with this phase of the subject mention must be made of the exhaustive investigations that have been instituted by Dr. James McKeen Cat- tell of Columbia University to ascertain the degree of mental equipment of the individual. These investigations in- clude tests for intelligence and memory and certain physical tests, such as the measurement of the head, the lung power, the strength of the grip, and the usual test for eyesight and hearing. On the mental side, memory, intelligence, apperception, suggestibility, and im- 14 209 THE AGE OF MENTAL VIRILITY agery figure as requirements. The tests of a given individual are to be repeated at intervals of five and ten years and should yield interesting data. Finally, a most remarkable sugges- tion, recently made by Dr. Edward A. Spitzka, is well worthy of careful study and development. In a recent address before the American Philosophical So- ciety he stated that his observations go to show that men of an aggressive mili- tary trend are born when their fathers are between twenty and thirty years old ; when the father is between thirty and forty the son is likely to be given to the arts or literature; between forty and fifty, he is apt to become a great states- man, and when the father is past fifty, as in the cases of Aristotle and Benja- min Franklin, the son is destined to show remarkable brain development 210 THE BRAIN OF GENIUS and ability. The influence of the father's age upon the brain capacity of his offspring is a new subject awaiting the developing touch of some ambitious investigator. 211 * y> KOI/I' yi^ C^ tf M W ^ f* ffl H if /o ASTRONOMERS AND MATHEMATICIANS Years I r b i ~ : oo r** to PO <5 * g " tj 5 o <> 00 r- r- 00 *! 00 S5 w A CO M 3 I c I v. r- 06 i~ t^ 10 " J5 'C u G. J r r~ 10 to to 00 ^1J w < 5 8 9 e r- r 77 t^ r r^ r- N oo to t^- oo N t- 5S 00 00 r. > * SO T " r 5 *** *o IO * 2 "* V V 3 3 , Dec. 13 24 56 Bishop of Massachusetts , March 17 25 62 "Institutes of Theology" De Orbium Ccclestium Revolut Opuscules Mathe'matiques" . . Opuscula Analytics" Dialoghi delle nuove Scienze" )emonstration of mechanical firmament 'Celestial Harmonics" 'Me'canique Analytique" 'Mecanique Celeste" 10 3 S (M o> |o JS U. Z to M t- r- 88 - 2 < JO o -r r~ "J -J | pj t^ 10 * 00 00 00 II ST * j ''f. ~ o 00 t^ 06 if. Z. "", j. ; : : Averages . . Alford .... Arnold, Thomas . . Beecher Brooks, Phillips .. - m -. < o Copernicus D'Alembert t. JJ w O Herschel . . j- c ^ M Lagrange . . Laplace Leverrier . . Napier, Johr Newton . . . . 212 CO 00 CO -f. a, r~ in * CD oo * * co co oo co r- o M .o ^ 3 5 3 ff) N - O o> I- i r 00 O M <*> J5 00 CO U ~ p. Si O. > B * J3 J- . 4)O*33ja 3 COt/3S><' J -< > OOCOcbOOCOCDCDOO o in c\j i- 55 .< V, O V c * cc 3 Q 1 S " " 1 o 5 K j "o a E ^. C n j, u ., I *8 s. * 1 ^ i CO o ^* ^* B CB E 8 " bu _. < <| Z 5 M C o c e a E o i. Q. V < a. 'Commen 'Memoria ounded \ w 1 slilll CL U '-0 -r IT, r rr v 9 S ! 5!5^3S5S 2^: S 8 O CO CM M V. 9 8 a r oorooom- < f CiJtM C^COWN t\ - 10 fo o> r^ f\i f^ o 4 _^ o CO C/" CO ^f -* ir. 10 ^ "; r* :: g :::::::: 5 i i : : . . . . . * :::; C * . M -o ii Q w i li : :frl 3 J2 213 VI tf - * K H IK I Q ao8l33 > i!S|gl?8-tilfgtJ&g sA-^*&H*y {; ra->r.N(Mm& M0llflt>_-) : '..-** ^.*-ii -j. ^..... : o^:::::: 8 5 :::::= 8 "elv M 1 K ,_-|1g/v -.' I IS s ~^a 3> , u j< . 5 i U. {2 X ? > < tc ^ S w 3.9 i jy/o *Zy fniuu'tjt')u OotOOI^OOOOSOOOWOO^-pil-"^^^"^ CD fttutJly MMMrON CJM- rtCM(MPiroN(\0|NN R 1 S oof^ooo5t^i^r-tDf~oBoou5o6i^t-ooZ'"oi r ,22 M^9R. o o> _, to i- ro "" 3 'J=c3J2 tN1 ' v i' eNO> *" N M ci N MM S=f M '5'S530eii{'S O 5 O 5 "13 A< 5 S O < Z S Q u. Z S .2, Z S SO *~r^u$vt'+'+'-a>q)a>'fQQ<3tnr--'?'5' c7>f'' i ici'' | n oo mmoci^ooo-*tor^oofvip*i^i i iooiiooo** i (M^ ;:;:;;;;:!:;:;;:;;:;; ,0 ; ; : i i : :| i ! I : \ : I : : : : I ::::: -' '-- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; I : : : : - : : E-2 1 a ' ' rf 2E or o 5 c . + ^g^os a a Ji 55 3 g a g - ' i . .5. iE -.5 liiinvii liici.i^ " 8fr | .al.tS z*2''*o gslia i r si hji'&i'fi'"] 3 -' 1 " 3 b< .? x u j o o ~ o O .2 .2 55 .2 5 .2 a x u x . bg ' o o O O Q_ -- t! to M M g in x in u ** **. ^ < 5 tr o K -c e I S E -a o o O S w P H : > *: e ' oooi co e X S E I J2 P *> c 5 E 215 *Y r- oo 00 10 2 i- i- /-'. f 11:11 H * 5 5 o. . Q Az < < S - I ti si s in r ro y /& Q IO O> *O ** O ^O Q^^QBcQfOcpcccor^crr^'h^^' in PS - X fc i i W H o 8 o 3 ""*""***' g : : : : I : o : : ** : S :::::: > NATURALISTS Zoologie Generate et Esquisses Gin ZooloBie" . 'Biography of American Quadrupeds" 'Comparative Embryology" V if ~-i 2 s x: Studies in American fossils 'Regne Animal distribul d'apres son tion" 'The Origin of the Species" 'Philosophic Anatomique" 'Kosmos" 'Anatomy of Vertebrate and Invertebrate 'Histoire Naturelle des Poissons" .... 'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans \ 'Physiognomische Fragmente" Studies in Fossil bones 'Species Plantarum" 'The Antiquity of Man" 'My Schools and Schoolmasters" noculation for. Hydrophobia 'On Heat and Radiation" 00 M * I 8 r- t- j- 8 f> "> * 3 6 S" O tj 1 ^ Z co S Z O Q S 3 < i^ s v ~>. r~ 5 S | SSS ? ? s s s | a 8 6* \ Buffon L c u JC Cuvier i i 04 Darwin Geoffroy Saint-Hi Humboldt Lace'pede " g ' u 3 1 >, H ei _: .: ei >> " o'Cjj- OQ -3 ffiooooo f* OooOtpoo^wroo> f~aQ*rwir>a>f>F~a>r~o>o>tnt^ oo5oooooooor~oo5>ooooour-ooooj r^t~w ot-fviotO'"OOn5O>o>oiO ii v v 9 * R V K v ( if v 1C v T c a 1 v o : :* c a ; il = . . o - : : 2 a 1 o V w "c "ex ill;;; J J o : : : c : . 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' 73 Drew up the "Omnibus Bill" r 63 Prime Minister < 54 Lord Protector of the British Commonwe ! 33 Minister of Justice > 64 Prime Minister ! 45 Successful senatorial contest t 48 "History of England from the Reign of j i cv d X 1 1 9 s. * S5 ro * o CM S5 > > e o Z Z o<^oz , B Q X fe u > n ^ c 1 X. "o X) Prime Minister Prime Minister Drew up the Federal Constitution Governor of Massachusetts First Governor General of India Preservation of the unity of China. Isth Governor of Virginia I 5 c_ (/, .0 3 !e e iH u T3 4> 'c *0 C u a ' Leader of the Diet In U. S. Congress Proclamation of Emancipation Defeat of the Girondins Peace of Westphalia Member of Comite diplomatique of the Monroe Doctrine Lord Chancellor of England United States Senator Prime Minister TJ B & B fl o 1 uijy forty flfa.fi >y S 8t~ o O> <0 r- 10 C * <0 O W> 83S8 SO) i--g-*^r--g aoS-8-S-So-SS I Q o ** t i-li "5 S "S "o :*i: : 5 . t ^:. x * : ^ -5 ^ u Jl JKM 91 M X {vj _ S AS < a a < g" * - -* o ^* rf> cb f^ in ^ cp e : : : : : T> r of 2 % * e Madonna" e'raire" * 11 1 X c E! CJ c ~ C > " 5 * "S i E *"* ** 5 ^ - . E M . < " - <: fi * iflfiJI ^a21 2 g (- w w - "O 4> 4) OJ IliSiSsS S E i*a sis: - =5 E E into o)o> cDinr~r*)''>o>oo PJCMWCO->~WOJ (M O CMCV1CO MN o>ooNO M -" CM . 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T; 229 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. DC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 047 355 1