Show VAGARIES OF GENIUS nothing is quite so mysterious as the working of the human mind A study of men classed as geniuses generally shows them to be a little cracked in certain respects sometimes their peculiarities have been harmless in other cases they have led to positive A few examples will illustrate napoleon was afraid of a cat peter the great was afraid to cross a bridge martin luther imagined that the devil appeared to him and he threw his ink bottle at the fiend samuel johnson beethoven and lacola at times contemplated suicide among the ridiculous antics of great men may be mentioned the occasional habit of cardinal richelieu to gallop around a billiard table imagining himself to be a horse adam smith the great economist once walked 12 miles to church clad only in his nightshirt bentham the philosopher went bareheaded in winter and wore heavy loather gloves in summer many men of genius have been shockingly lax in morals as measured by usual standards all this does not mean however that being a little nutty is an infallible sign of genius |