Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-06-12
Correspondence.
For the Standard.
The Mission of Genius.

Is tue lnhuence they nave exerted upon
the human mind. Fierce and earnest
has been the conflict through ages for in
tellectual supremacy. Oh how eagerly
has genius strove TO reach the pinnacle
of human greatness! What fields have
the conquerors of earth dyed with human
gore to extend their brief and worthless
rule /! To what depths of baseness have
the greatest of mortal minds plunged be-
fore the god of powerl But still, although
the greatest of men have erred, sadly
erred, the mission of genius is a noble, a
divine one. Spurning antiquated au-
thority and committed to the search of
truth, challenging in the combat trial of
the record of ages, it boldly supplants its
errors with ever-enduring truth.
Every age can boast of its distinguish
ed men, of those prominently great, born
to play an active part in the worlds dra-
mas, which neither the influence of the
age in which they lived nor surrounding
circumstances could thwart. Destined to
have no puny part in molding the events
of their times, in determining what their
history should be, they came forth upon
the stage of tumultuous strife all clad
with the panoply Of transcendent intel
lects, and with stern and resistless wills
to leave no trivial impress Of their image
upon the portrait of ages, they shook the
nations and changed the entire face of af-
fairs. While others, in a more humble
orbit, toiling in their seclusion and pow
erty to establish from the intellectual cha
os eternal truth and the firm foundation
of philosophy, have gained for themselves
the merited Immortality of colossal minds
and left monuments Of their nobleness
more enduring than pillars of Parian
marble.
Such men have been rightly termed
geniuses; if those of extraordinary abil-
tiles, with minds towering far above the
common mass, can claim any such title.
The pages of history are graced with but
few such men, and fewer still who have
nobly and faithfully performed their high
and important mission; for to err is hu-
man, and genius is not exempt from NOR
tai frailties. Nor have their labors al
ways been appreciated in their time
They have lived in advance of the age,
and the world was not prepared to accept
their discoveries; bat still as said the de-
vout astronomer Kepler: "the die is cast.
l write book which will be read by nv
contemporaries, or by posterity, no mat
ter which. 1t may wait for reader
hundred years, if need be, since God
himself has waited six thousand years
for witness of his works."
All advancement in science and in the
discovery of truth seems sometimes to
have ceased. No new and thrilling ideas
are presented; the world of unattained
knowledge opens its concealed stores to
none; the hands upon the dial of the
worlds progress move not.
Then it is that the man of genius, as
if by divine allotment, emerging from
obscurity, leaving the false and worn out
theories of the past, delving deep into
the reason of things, fearing not the
frowns of the bigoted in power, or of
those who live only in the past, after years
of diligent study brings forth the fruits of
his research.
Scarcely emerging from the gloom of
the dark ages, Florence gave to the world
such one, in the person of the beauti-
fully styled starry Gallileo." Rejecting
tradition, relying on his own convictions
of truth, he rent the veil which had so
long concealed the heavens as dim, dis
tant and unknown space; arranged scat
tered planets into systems, and marked
out their orbits in the shoreless immensi-
ty. Grasping the idea that the world
moved, although the Inquisition would
force him to recant still truth caused
the whisper: "And still it moves"
Nor less imposing was the career of
the inspired genius of Newton, to whom
as ii were, the God of the Universe had
decreed the task of perfecting what 9TH
ers had begun, of shedding a new and
brilliant light upon science, which the
world can never too sacredly prize.
But 60 and gaze upon the immortal
works of the genius of sculpture and DO
etry, if you would behold it achieving its
most peerless and cheering mission =
Where the artist has impressed upon cold
marble the almost breathing image of his
maker, and the poet has sung the soul
cheering inspirations of his exalted mind
in divine melodies, which the merciless
II.