the widest possible deviation from the
normal, he is more or less in that condition of unconsciousness which
characterises psychic epilepsy and is represented by a series of
unconscious psychic activities.

Having demonstrated the frequent existence of a spice of insanity in the
genius and flashes of genius in the insane, and, further, that geniuses
are subject to a special form of insanity, my father, who was no mere
theorist, but an admirer of facts and eager to turn them to account,
considered next the possibility of making practical use of these
discoveries. This he had no difficulty in doing.

The prevalence of insanity in men of genius explained innumerable
contradictions and mad traits in their lives and works, the true meaning
of which had hitherto escaped biographers, who either ignored them
altogether or covered reams of paper with vain attempts to represent
them as inspirations or, at any rate, reasonable actions. It also
explained the origin of some of the extraordinary errors committed by
great men; for example, the absurdly contradictory actions of Cola di
Rienzi, who, after making himself master of Rome when the city was in a
state of chaos, restoring peace and order, reorganising the army and
conceiving the vast idea of a united Italy, ended his patriotic mission
with a series of extravagances worthy of a madhouse.

The fact that traits of genius are so often found in mentally unsound
persons and _vice versa_, permits us to suppose that lunatics have not
infrequently held the destinies of nations in their hands and furthered
progress by revolutionary movements, of which by reason of their natural
tendencies and marked originality they are so often the promoters.

It may seem a simple idea to class great men, who have exercised such an
enormous influence on civilisation, with wretched beings, to whom no
brilliant part has been allotted, and to estimate mad ideas at their
true worth; yet it had never occurred to any one before.

It is in the minor works of geniuses that the greater number of
absurdities abound, but they are little known to the general public, who
are acquainted only with the masterpieces. Critics either ignored the
absurdities and heresies contained in these works, or, dazzled by the
genius of the author, made them the subject of infinite studies, in the
conviction that they were merely allusions or symbols demanding
interpretation. All the defects of great men, all the extravagant
no