“I do not think he ought to be shut up. His infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying with him; and I’d as lief pray with Kit Smart as anyone else. Another charge was that he did not love clean linen, and I have no passion for it.”
— Dr. Johnson on the religiously mystical poet Christopher Smart who spent the majority of his life in a lunatic asylum. Michael Schmidt, author of “Lives of the Poets” says, in regards to Smart, “He has few heirs”. I agree with that.
