The Nevada journal., 1856-10-17
WHOLE NUMBER 335

that there are so few distinguished sons
of great meni Clay, Webster and CAL
houn have all left sons, but none that
seem to take their fathers places as
orators or statesmen. Lord Chatham,
indeed, might boast of an exception in
William Pitt; but where shall we find
ahotherl The younger Pitt, Fox, Sheri-
dan, Burke, Brougham. where are their
sons The present Sir Robert Peel is,
indeed, of the third generation of men
who have attained to some degree of
distinction in Great Britain, and have
! sat in the English House of Commons
But then, none of these men have been
persons Of genius; they were good busi-
ness men and able tacticians, but no.
thing more. The present member of
that name, while plodding, persever-
ing and successful red-tape man, is by
all acknowledged TO be no gentleman;
and although his fathcrw was sound and
useful prime minister, it is we'll known
that the Duke of Wellington despaired
of forming ministry with him agreea-
BILE to the Queen, because he was so un-
genial in his manners as to be accounted
"no gentleman"
Distinctions in the exact sciences
would seem most apt to reproduce itself
Herschell. father and son, have been
great astronomers, and the whole family
of Napiers has been distinguished for
two or three generations.
In the line of military men, such as
Napoleon and Washington, where are
their descendants Lord Wellington has
sons, it is true, but they have added lit
tie honor to his name SO far, and are not
likely to add much more. Oliver Crom-
we'll had a son, who had, indeed, the
good sense to resign his Protectorate,
but it was because he felt he had not
the ability to keep it.
With the poets it is the most noticea-
bic Of all. Where have we, in all his
tory, two really great poets, father and
son? Milton had no sons. Sir Walter
Scott had, but they are all dead, without
issue and without distinction, and the
hearth Of Abbottsiord may soon be ten
antless and desolate of any of its surviv-
ing descendants. Byron's only surviv-
ing child cannot bear, it is said, to hear
her fathers name mentioned, and boasts
that she has never read his works
Goethe, who shall hand down his name
to posterityl Cowper, Wordsworth,
Shelly, what son of genius has arisen
from their ashes
Coleridge, the most eccentric of all
the race Of modern poets, showed his
singularity in nothing more conspicuouly
than this-that he was the father of a
man of some genius and promise, almost
a poet. Indeed, Hartley wrote some
admirable little pieces (all fragmentary,
however,) and would have been, per-
haps, as great man as his father, but
for an utter impotence and prostration
Of the will, which, with habits of intem-
perance, from which he never emerged,
ruined him. In fact, account for it as
we may, the descendants of men of real
genius have been, as a general thing,
few and undistinguished. Mohammed
and Confucius might indeed claim to be
exceptions to the former part of the
statement, but not the latter On what
principle, then, is this fact to be ex-
planned ? Is it simply that as the acorn
cannot grow under the shadow of the
full grown, overspreading oak, SO youth
full genius in the second generation is
perpetually depressed by sense of in
feliority in the presence of the first p
Or is it that the standard of attainment
becomes elevated SO high, that from the
very first these men never hope to real
ize anything at all equal to their own
ideas, and will, therefore, attempt no.
thingl This may be the cause in part
Very probably Hartley Coleridge would
never have produced even what he did
as poet, had he not been brought up
far enough from the influence of his
father for the shadow of his influence not
to put blight upon him.
But there arc other causes. The
same immediate necessity is not laid
upon the second generation, as produced
the noblest efforts of their fathers. Drl
johnson would never have written the
finest pages of the Rambler had he not
wanted guinea to pay for his dinner,
and it was ConstabIe's liberal advances
for the building of Abbottsford that pro1
duced the Waverly Novels. Coleridge
would have talked, but never have witt
ten volume, except to secure ready
money, and Tom Moore's truest inspira-
ton was the promise of three thousand
guineas for poem. Even Lord Byron
wrote some of the most brilliant passa-
ges Of his Don Juan as much under the
influence of Murry's check-book as his
favorite gin and water. But the sons of
successful men of genius are often too
much protected and petted and spoiled.
They either have plenty of money, or
learn to live without it. They are not
sufficiently thrown by a stern necessity
on their own resources. Even this,
however, would fail adequately to ac-
count for the facts of the case. The
truth is that the productions Of real
genius in any direction are an exhaust
ing crop, and the soil that produces them
has to talow for generation or two at
least, if it ever regains its fertility.