te, persistent wickedness implies a strong will, just what
neuropaths lack. A man of weak will can never be a very good nor yet a very
bad man. He will be very good at times, very bad at times, and neutral at
times, but neither for long; before sudden impulses, whether good or bad,
neuropaths are largely powerless.

The many perversities of a neuropath are not deliberately put forth of his
"free will" to annoy both himself and others, for the neuropath inherits
his weak-control no less than his large hands.

Friends _must_ remember they are dealing with a person whose _nature_ it is
to "go off half-cock", and who cannot be normal "if he likes". The
neuropath, young or old, says what he "thinks" _without thinking_, that is
he says what he _feels_, and acts hastily without weighing consequences.

_Cassius_: Have you not love enough to bear with me,
When that rash humour which my mother gave me
Makes me forgetful?

_Brutus_: Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth
When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

* * * * *

One cannot detail the effects of neuropathy on character, when its victims
include madmen, sexual perverts, idiots, criminals, imbeciles, prostitutes,
humble but honest citizens, common nuisances, invalids of many kinds,
misanthropists, designers, enthusiasts, composers, communists, reformers,
authors, artists, agitators, statesmen, poets, prophets, priests and kings.

Very mild epilepsy--from one fit a year to one in several years--instead of
hindering, seems rather to help mentality, and many geniuses have been
epileptic. These talented victims, are less rare than the public suppose,
owing to the jealous care with which symptoms of this disease are guarded.
Socrates, Julius Caesar, Mahomet, Joan of Arc, Peter the Great, Napoleon,
Byron, Swinburne, and Dostoieffsky are but a few among many great names in
the world of art, religion and statecraft. Epileptic princes, kings and
kinglets who have achieved unenviable notoriety might be named by scores,
Wilhelm II being the most notable of modern times.

This brilliant mentality is always accompanied by instability, and usually
by marked disability in other ways. The success of these men often depends
on an ability to view things from a new, quaint or queer standpoint, which
appeals to their more normal fellows.

In matters that require great fertility, a quick grasp,