, 1860-02-14

BILE as the monarch Of the forest; or, rice rersa,
make the Liou cease to be carniyerous in his ill.,
stincts, and he will be pleasant play fellow Tor
your dogs and children!
Ny experience shows that it j. the nature Of
Genius to labor patiently, and hence It is easy
to leup to the conclusion that Geuius is but pa-
tient labor. But, though Genius is essentially
active. and will Labor it is the falsest Of notions
TINT VIII can do the work Of Intellect, that e.
fort can supply Genius, and that mere intensity
Of desire can give intensity Of power. As well
might the tortoise hope, by intense striving to
run as FAST as the greyhound, or the monkey to
aequirc the strength Of the elephant. No great
intellectual thing was ever done bY great effort;
great thing can only be done By great ,ndn,
and be does it without effort. "An improring
actor, artist, or poet" says Hezlits, never be-
comes great one. have known such in my
time, who wore always advancing By slow and
sure steps to the height Of their profession;
but in the mean time some nun Of genius rose,
aud, passing them, at once seized on the top
most round Of ambitions ladder, So that they
still remained iu the second class" As the
same acute writer further adds, a volcano does
not gise warning when it will break out, nor q
thunderbolt seud word Of its approach. Kcan
stamped himself the first night in Shylock; he
never did it any better. A man Of genius is
sui gtneris-to be known, he needs only TO be
seen; you can no more dispute whether be is
one, than you can dispute whether it is pan
ther that is shown you in cage.
Neither do great occasions make great men.
Great occasions arc the necessities only for
which grent men are the supplies. There WIS
never truer sentiment uttered, than that quo-
ted at recent scientific meeting in England,
By Professor 0Ecn, from the notebook Of the
late Dr. Hunter, viz: Tint, no man was ever a
great mau who sodat<d to be one. To achieve
any species Of greatness, We must be utterly
unconscious Of The way we n17ivc at it. 1t is
not 10 he acquired by malice prepense
As well might one, by taking thought,
add cubit to bis stature. Great works
do not make greatuess-they only r<oeal it.
They are the outgoings Of IN inward being;
they are the embodiments Of the soul, which
was born great- When the Duke Of Wellington
carried out any Of his great strategical opera
tions in Spain, or put the keystone to the arch
Of bis g1ory at Waterloo, think you he was
dreaming Of star and a garter: No; he
Thought only Of giving the French sound
thrashing.
Paradoxical as nil this may seem, it is never
thelcss true; nor does it afford any.encourage-
ment to idlencss, or aatter the concet Of Heaven
descended Genius in turc-down collars, that la-
bor may be dispensed with. It simply says
that the Crow is not the Eagle, and that no
amount Of sun-starings will make it one; there
fore, as IN able writer, himself man of brilliant
genius, has said -" It is no mans business
whether he has genius or not; work be must,
whatever he is, but quietly and steadily; and
the natural and uniorced results of such work
will be always the things that God meant him to
do, and will be his best No agoniee, nor heart
rendings, will enable him 10 do my better. II
he be great man, they will be great things; il
he is small man, small things; but always, if
thus peacefully done, good and right: always,
if restlesslr and ambitiously done, fa1sc, hollow,
and despicablc.'