generative character, by which the process of tallized in one of its first periods of sensorial e normal in his erotic passions is first excited e feminine belongings; but in those abnormal absorbs the whole erotic process; so that the Iress, above spoken of, no longer needs to see her to speak to him, to touch him, the first moso wholly substituting itself for all the suce latter may be suppressed.

ases of hereditary paranoia a like phenomenon explains some strange deeds normal and pathoare quite unable to interpret. Individuals who impression in a particular circumstance were h life by it, exclusive of others, although their ether unchanged. Mr. Marro speaks of a girl g a man talk a long time on some parts of the horror, became a maniac, and continually fancied that matter. A girl was so impressed by a volat thereafter she believed herself to be always in anoes, and another was so frightened by a quarrel that always afterward she saw people with masked cey is the most typical case: having seen, when he d, his dead sister lying on her deathbed, he was so ght that the sky and the clouds always seemed to s with dead girls in them; these visions lasted for t of his life, so that he said himself that all our germs in the child, and chance-an accident, futile ecisive-causes them to develop.

THE FACTOR OF AGE.

one notices that the influence on the creation of ll as the determination of folly or religious converconcur with the time of puberty, but happened even. as in De Quincey. That is clear, when it is underhat we said must be applied to a longer period than rty itself, and extended to years immediately followeding it. Some geniuses are so strangely precocious and youth are confused in them. Mozart was a come; Gassendi, a preacher at four; Picodella Mirandoia al languages at ten, and Kotzebue wrote his first come. This precocity is often shown by Negroes and Es

settled, he has sentiments and ideas of his own and may hardly be influenced.

A very important proof of this truth appears in Starbuck's "Psychology of Religion." The author personally investigated the cause of conversion of many hundred students in seminaries and upper schools of America, with the following results:

He noticed that besides a more general influence on the part of parents, a very large proportion of influence was exercised by friends or teachers at particular times of life; or tales, sermons, poems, songs, listened to, or read, under particular circumstances, these factors contributing to conversion as frequently as familiar surroundings. But in all these cases, this is the fact of actual interest to us, that any external influence, through friends, books, teachers, etc., acted, as the case is with genius, at puberty, during a period extended by Mr. Starbuck to six years, by including years immediately preceding and following puberty, the psychical and physical influence of which was found by him to last much longer, especially in the case of men. Indeed, it is evident from a graphic. representation of his observations that the line representing the number of men's conversions in relation to their ages has three maximums, one at sixteen years, another at twelve, and a smaller one at nine. This curve is exactly parallel with Harnack's, for mental tests, in order to fix a maximum of intelligence, or, better, of reasoning power, in boys of the same country.

Mr. Starbuck gives also in his book many answers he got to his questions, and such answers show that influences were—as stated

above for genius-momentary, enormous, as revelations quite out of proportion to events, having nothing peculiar in themselves. Some young men were converted after listening to the serious preaching of a friend or teacher they had known and loved and listened to even before; or after reading a book, a story, a quotation they had seen hundreds of times; hearing music, or witnessing a pitiful sight that had nothing worth notice in itself, but which agreed at the time with their particular condition of soul.

The same sort of thing occurs in the unseen, inner life, according to Mr. Starbuck's statement. Most of the men interviewed by him had noticed at some moment of their childhood a sudden revolution which determined a violent change in their characters, ideas, and aims-a transitory period of folly, he calls it. For many of them such a revolution was the cause of terrible melancholy; for others, of ferocious scepticism, or stupid passions.

Mr. Marro pointed out something like this in Turin schoolboys who become riotous, undisciplined, and bad at about twelve or thirteen years. (Marro's "La Puberta," second ed., 1900. Anthrop. Series, Vol. XXVI., Bocca Bros., Turin, Italy.) The result of an investigation of mine, attempted among forty educated young men, is that, at that time, impulsive, pyromaniac, kleptomaniac, and strikingly ambitious tendencies are very strong and diffused, sometimes even with slight hallucinations, and almost always with megalomaniac tendencies and demency alternated. Out of forty examined, sixteen declared that they noticed nothing. or recalled nothing; seven remembered having, between eight and twelve years of age, a strange megalomania, in opposition to their family circumstances, to become conquerors of Verne's Islands or the Republic of San Marino; five stole at home in order to waste money-they were workmen's sons and tried to make people believe that they were rich and powerful; five had persecuting ideas of being arrested by the police, or of becoming soldiers, when they were eight years old; three were insulting, quarrelsome, and villainous; two were seized by religious mania to become missionaries or hermits; two had obscene impulses, and one a suicidal tendency. A rich, very honest, young man, during pubescence, stole even coin pieces from shops, though he was not in need, and threw them away, or concealed them underneath stones, as soon as he had taken thenr. Another rich man had stolen a pair of shoes from a show-window, only to throw them.

away.

A lady teacher in a Turin boarding-school told me that she had

to look after three sisters, who successively attended her school; and that all of them were good and quiet up to twelve years, became intolerable liars, bad and insubordinate, from twelve to fifteen, and later resumed their previous character.

The fact is, that at that time a tremendous overflow of life is prepared and organized and perturbs the being, enveloping it as in a sort of coil, which can-at least temporarily-drag the feeble to their ruin, but exalt the strong to giddy heights; because at this age of complete reconstruction and transformation of the organism the psychical centers are the most affected. This proves the truth of a great writer's sentence, that he who never created anything in his youth will never create anything later. Now, in this giddy movement it is natural that any most energetic, though formerly latent, activity, breaks its way, particularly when the electric shock of a special sensation has first thrust it in that direction toward which it naturally tended. So a fertile coupling happens that definitively polarizes young people and causes a new organism of greater proportions to develop.

What happens transitorily in normal people would happen on a larger scale in geniuses; such an organic revolution is more pronounced and more manifest in the latter, as well as in criminals and the insane. The insane indeed show, above all in their psychopathies, a keen resemblance, almost an identity in the process of the formation of mad intellect, with that of genius ideas in men. of genius.

Sometimes, although psychical activity is normal to a great extent, an impression received by an individual during, or shortly before, puberty, assumes such a great importance in him as to determine all his actions, all his psycho-sexual content. Such is the case of those so-called erotic fetishisms, of people who can be sexually attracted only by seeing an old woman with a coif, or by holding a candle in the hand, or by being insulted, etc., that can be explained by means neither of atavism nor of neurosis. When those people are questioned, however, one learns that in the very moment of their first erotic excitement they were so powerfully struck by the image of an old woman with a coif, or with a candle, that they could be roused in no other way. A man who felt an erotic fetishism for women dressed as Italian models, recalled, in explanation of the fact, that he saw, while sixteen years old, in the first power of his puberty, a model of extraordinary beauty so dressed.

This is a phenomenon which is also common to genius, cer

tainly owing to its degenerative character, by which the process of erotism remains crystallized in one of its first periods of sensorial excitement. Any one normal in his erotic passions is first excited by the sight of some feminine belongings; but in those abnormal cases this moment absorbs the whole erotic process; so that the lover of a model's dress, above spoken of, no longer needs to see her face, or wants her to speak to him, to touch him, the first moment of excitement so wholly substituting itself for all the successive ones that the latter may be suppressed.

Even in many cases of hereditary paranoia a like phenomenon is observed, which explains some strange deeds normal and pathological psychology are quite unable to interpret. Individuals who received a strong impression in a particular circumstance were affected all through life by it, exclusive of others, although their psyche was altogether unchanged. Mr. Marro speaks of a girl who, upon hearing a man talk a long time on some parts of the body, felt a deep horror, became a maniac, and continually fancied men speaking of that matter. A girl was so impressed by a volcanic eruption that thereafter she believed herself to be always in the midst of volcanoes, and another was so frightened by a quarrel in a bal-masque that always afterward she saw people with masked faces. De Quincey is the most typical case; having seen, when he was six years old, his dead sister lying on her deathbed, he was so struck by the sight that the sky and the clouds always seemed to him full of beds with dead girls in them; these visions lasted for the greater part of his life, so that he said himself that all our ideas exist as germs in the child, and chance-an accident, futile in itself, but decisive-causes them to develop.

THE FACTOR OF AGE.

Sometimes one notices that the influence on the creation of genius, as well as the determination of folly or religious conversion, did not concur with the time of puberty, but happened even long before, as in De Quincey. That is clear, when it is understood that what we said must be applied to a longer period than that of puberty itself, and extended to years immediately following and preceding it. Some geniuses are so strangely precocious that infancy and youth are confused in them. Mozart was a composer at five; Gassendi, a preacher at four; Picodella Mirandola knew several languages at ten, and Kotzebue wrote his first comedy at three. This precocity is often shown by Negroes and Es