The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-02-11
Genius will Study.
BY oRVILLE DEWEY.

GENUS Will study
BY ORVILLE DEWEY.
The favorite idea of a genius among us, is
OF one who never studies, or who studies, no.
body can tell when-at midnight, or at odd
times and intervals now and then strikes
out, at ii heat, as the phrase is, some wonder
ful production. This i. u character that has
figured largely in the history of our literature
i'll the person of our Fieldngs, our Savages,
and our Steees-" loose fellows about town. y
or loungers in the country, who slept in ale
houses and wrote in bar-rooms, who took up
the pen as magicians wand to supply their
wants, and when the pressure of necessity was
relieved resorted again to their carousals.-
Your real genius is an Idle, irregular, vaca-
bond sort of a parsonage, who muses. in the
fields or dreams by the fireside whose strong
mpulses-that is the cant Of it-must needs
hurry him into wild irregularities, or foolish
eccentricity who abhors order, and can bear
no restraint, and eschews all labor: such an
What they must have been irregular, else
they were no geniuses.
" The young man." it is often said, "has
genius enough, if he would only study" Now
the truth is, as shall take the liberty to state
it, that genius will study, it is that in the
mind which does study; that is the very ma
ture oft. care not to say that it will al
ways use books. All study is not reading
any more than all reading is study. By study
mean-but let one of the noblest geniuses
and hardest students of any age define it for
me. "Study," says Cicero, is the earnest and
intense occupation of the mind applied to
some subject, such as philosophy, poetry, ge-
ometry or literature, with right good will -
Such study, such intense mental action, and
nothing else, is genius. And so far as there
is any native predisposition about this cnvia-
BILE character of mind, it is predispositon to
that action. That is the only test of the
original bias and he who does not come to
that point, though he may have shrcwdness,
and readiness, and parts, never had a genius.
No need to waste regrets upon him, as that he
never could be induced to give his attention
or study to any thing he never had that which
he is supposed to have lost. For attention it
is, though other qualities belong to this tran
sendent power-attention it is, that is the very
soul Of genius not the fixed eye, not the por-
ing over book, but the fixed thought It is,
in fact, an action of the mind which is stead
lily concentrated upon one idea. or one series
Of ideas-which collects in one point the rays
of the soul till they search, penetrate and fire
the whole train fits thoughts. And while the
fire burns within, the outward man may in
deed be cold, Indifferent, negligcnt-absent in
appearance he may be an idler, or a wander
er, apparently without aim or intent but
still the fire burns within. And what though
" it bursts forth" at length, as has been said,
like volcanic fires, aNith spontaneous, origin
all native force 2" 1t only shows the inten,
ser action of the elements beneath What
though it breaks like lightning fl ON the cloud?
The electric fire had been collecting in the
armament through many silent, calm, and
clear day. What though the might of genius
appears in one decisive blow, struck in some
moment of high debate, or at the crisis of a
nations peril ? That mighty energy, though
it may have heaved in the breast ofa Demos
themes, was once feeble infants thought
A mothers eye watched over IFS dawning. A
fathers care guarded its early growth. 1t
soon trod with youthful step the halls oflearn-
ing, and found other fathers to wake and to
watch for it. 1t went ON ; but silence was up
on its path, and the deep struggings of the
inward soul marked its progress, and the
cherlshing powers Of nature silently minister
ed to it. The elements around breathed up
on it and "touched it to finer issues" The
golden ray of heaven iell upon it, and ripen-
ed its expanding faculties. The slow revolu
tons Of years slowly added to its collected
treasures and energies; till in its hour of elo-
ry, it stood forth embodied in the form of liv-
ing, commanding, irresistible eloquencc =
The world wonders at the manifestation, and
says, Strange, strange that it should come
thus unsought, npremeditated, unprepared"
But the truth is, there is no more a miracle
about it, than there is in the towering of the
pre-emnent forest tree, or in the flowing Of
the mighty and irresistible river, or in the
wealth of the boundless harvest.
Youthful aspirants after intellectual emf
hence forget, forget, entreat you Danish,
Danish for ever, the weak and senscless idea,
that any thing will serve your purpose, but
study intense, unwearled absorbing study,
Young AmericanS Magazine.
SPIRITUAL DYSPEPSIA This is in some
places a prevailing disease. Allow me in
word to point out its cause, signs and RENE.
dy. 1t is caused by want Of active spiritu-
al pyprriSa ndpounte to 1iUpst the amount Of