In this persecution, men of genius have no fiercer or more terrible enemies than the men of academies, who possess the weapons of talent, the stimulus of vanity, and the _prestige_ by preference accorded to them by the vulgar, and by governments which, in large part, consist of the vulgar. There are, indeed, countries in which the ordinary level of intelligence sinks so low that the inhabitants come to hate not only genius, but even talent. Originality, though usually of an aimless kind, is observed with some frequency among the insane--as we shall see later on--and especially among those inclined to literature. They sometimes reach the divinations of genius: thus Bernardi, at the Florence Asylum in 1529, wished to show the existence of language among apes.[88] In exchange for this fatal gift, both the one and the other have the same ignorance of the necessities of practical life which always seems to them less important than their own dreams, and at the same time they possess the disordered habits which renders this ignorance dangerous. _Fondness for Special Words._--This originality causes men of genius, as well as the insane, to create special words, marked with their own imprint, unintelligible to others, but to which they attach extraordinary significance and importance. Such are the _dignità_ of Vico, the _individuità_ of Carrara, the _odio serrato_ of Alfieri, the _albero epogonico_ of Marzolo, and the _immiarsi_, the _intuarsi_, and the _entomata_ of Dante. CHAPTER III. LATENT FORMS OF NEUROSIS AND INSANITY IN GENIUS. Chorea and Epilepsy--Melancholy--Megalomania--_Folie du doute_--Alcoholism--Hallucinations--Moral Insanity--Longevity. It is now possible to explain the frequency among men of genius, even when not insane, of those forms of neurosis or mental alienation which may be called latent, and which contain the germs and as it were the outlines of these disorders.