The Infirmities of Genius Illustrated by Referring the Anomalies in the Literary Character to the Habits and Constitutional Peculiarities of Men of Genius, Volume 1Carey, Lea, and Blanchard, 1833 - 597 pages |
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aggravated appears asthma attack bard better biographer blood bodily brain Brocklesby Burns Byron cause cere CHAPTER character conduct constitution Davy debility dejection disease disorder disposition doctrine doubt drink dropsy dying effects electric fluid excess excitement exertion fame fear of death feelings frequently friends gloom Grosvenor Square heart human hypochondria indigestion indulgence infirmities influence insanity intellect intemperance irritability James Johnson JOHNSON CONTINUED Joshua Reynolds knowledge laboured late LITERARY PURSUITS literature living look madness malady melancholy mental Metastasio moral morbid sensibility nature nerves nervous energy never observation occasion opinion organ pain passion peace perhaps period physi physician poet poor Pope Port wine private scandal probably reason rendered says Boswell says Currie sensation Sir John Hawkins society spirits spleen stomach studious habits sufferings temper Temple Bar thing thought timated tion told tricity truth vated vital wine words
Popular passages
Page 79 - How small , of all that human hearts endure , That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Page 166 - I ventured to tell him, that I had been, for moments in my life, not afraid of death; therefore I could suppose another man in that state of mind for a considerable space of time. He said, 'he never had a moment in which death was not terrible to him.
Page 177 - Every thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent ; there never was any moderation. Many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine : but when he did eat, it was voraciously ; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not temperance.
Page 176 - I never k'new any man who relished good eating more than he did. When at table, he was totally absorbed in the business of the. moment ; his looks seemed rivetted to his plate ; nor. would he, unless when in very high company, say one word, or even pay the least attention to what was said by others, till he had satisfied his appetite, which was so fierce, and indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins • of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration...
Page 107 - Of the great number to whom it has been my painful professional duty to have administered in the last hours of their lives, I have sometimes felt surprised that so few have appeared reluctant to go to " the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns.
Page 186 - Whether what Temple says be true, that physicians have had more learning than the other faculties, I will not stay to...
Page 171 - ... his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care, to go out or in at a door' or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot, (I am not certain which,) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture : for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with...
Page 87 - The first is their negligence: "Other men look to their tools, a painter will wash his pencils, a smith will look to his hammer, anvil, forge: an husbandman will mend his ploughirons, and grind his hatchet if it be dull; a falconer or huntsman will have an especial care of his hawks, hounds, horses, dogs, &c.
Page 171 - It is not more strange that there should be evil spirits than evil men: evil unembodied spirits, than evil embodied spirits. And as to storms, we know there are such things; and it is no worse that evil spirits raise them than that they rise.
Page 154 - Tis carnificina hominum, angor animi, as well saith Areteus, a plague of the soul, the cramp and convulsion of the soul, an epitome of hell ; and if there be a hell upon earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart " For that deep torture may be call'd an hell, When more Is felt, than one hath power to tell.