They called them idiots.

Idiots! God help us!" That strange light seemed to kindle in his eyes again while he was speaking, and it conveyed anything but a cheerful suggestion to my mind.
"There is this difference between idiots and madmen," he continued.

"The former are born outside the pale of human sympathy; the latter overstep it.

In either case they are not of this earth--they are embodied spirits living in a world of their own creation, biding the time of liberation from the flesh.

And do you know, there are more madmen in the world than it dreams of ?" He stopped with a tone of sharp interrogation and looked squarely into my face.
"There are undoubtedly many of them," said I.
"The lines of monomania all lead to madness," he continued.