Transcript from original newspaper article: -

THE DULLNESS OF GREAT MEN.

– Descartes, the famous mathematician and philosopher; a Fontaine, celebrated for his witty fables; Buffon, the great naturalist, were all singularly deficient in the powers of conversation. Marmontel, the novelist, was so dull in society that his friends said of him, after an interview, “I must go and read his titles, to recompense myself for the weariness of sparing him.” As to Corneille, the greatest dramatist in France, he was completely lost in society – So absent and embarrassed, that he wrote of himself a witty couplet, importing that he never was intelligible but through the mouth of another. Wit on paper seems to be something widely different from that play of words in conversation, which, while it sparkles, dies; for Charles II., the wittiest monarch that ever sat on the English throne, was so charmed with the humor of “Hudibras,” that he caused himself to be introduced, in the character of a primate gentleman, to Butler, its author. The witty king found the author a very dull companion, and was of the opinion, with many others, that so stupid a fellow could never have written so clever a book. Addison, whose classic elegance has long been considered the model of style, was shy and absent in society, preserving, even before a single stranger, stiff and dignified silence. In conversation, Dante was taciturn and satirical. Gray or Alfieri seldom talked or smiled. Rousseau was remarkably trite in conversation; not a word of fancy or eloquence warmed him. Milton was unsocial, and even irritable, when much pressed by the talk of others.