HAUNTED GENIUS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 198, 24 August 1935, Page 10

HAUNTED GENIUS

I'll 081 AS OF FAMOUS MEN. One of the frenalties paid by genius is to be haunted, almost from t..ic cradle tu the grave, by morbid fears. To the u-idinary person these fears appear ludicrous, and they are quoted, inuecd, as evidence of the madness of genius. Jane Welsh Carlyle, in “Letters lu Her Family,” which have recently b«eu published, comments on Tennyson’s < mnarrassment in the presence of ladies. He was also morbiiily afraid of sex, of God and of death. Harold Nicholson, in his summary of Tvnnyson’s achievements, declares that tne, essential inspiration of the great Victorian poet was that of fear. A fear of death was the constant attendant of Lord Byron, (’.specially during his youth. It was this fear that, caused him to avoid the Bridge o' Bal gownie, Old Aberdeen, whicu, accord mg Io a prophecy, was to tall when an only son rode across it on a mare’s only foal. Byron was an only son. The fear c-f the dark sems to persist throughout the life of many geniuses. Among those who thus suffered were Edgar Allan Foe, Alfred de Musse and Ohopin. Thomas Carlyle tremble I at the thought of entering a shop. Newton, who enunciated u.ic law of gravitation, was afraid of water; anil Fagan ini, the great violinist, shared his. fcar of 1 his elemenl. I'rasniiis, who was icgfirdcd as one ol the great Idrccs in bringing about ' the Keiormai i<>n, and as the intellect ual i Mussolini of his age, was hoiritied at the sight of a iish. The fears of genius may sometimes take a curious form. Dr. Johnson it is sai'l, could not pass railings or any similar objects without touching them. If he missed any, he felt uneasy, until lie returned and rectified the omission.