Smyrna times., 1867-05-08
Half-Genius.

The most dangerous kind of man in all the
world whether in low or exalted station, is he
who Just misses being true genius The am
cunt Of injury which he is able to intlict on the
world will Of course depend upon the position
he holds in it; but, whether king or cobbler,
he is sure to do whatever mischief he can in
that position in life to which it has pleased God
to call him. A blockhead sometimes has it in
his power to do world Of harm, but this arises
from the folly Of other people in deliberately
closing their eyes to the fact that he is block
head, and thus giving him free room to perpe-
trate whatever mischiefple him. Asa rule,
one is on his guard against blockheads. And,
at all events, their evil or silly deeds both spring
from bad qualities in the bockheads themselves
and are tolerated by reason of the bad qualities
in their neighbors With men of halt-genius
the case is just the reverse. They are danger
Gus, not through their incapacity, but from their
capacity; it is their good qualities that make
them formidable. They assume all the prerOg-
atives and powers of genius they are int1amed
with all its ambition and confidence they pro-
pose to themselves the accomplishment OF exalt-
ed ends, and they WELD swiit-striking and gi-
gantic weapons And yet, because their mem
tai equipment lacks the perfect complement of
real genius, the tremendous measure of their
aspirations is only the measure OF their failure
and ruin. This has been seen more than once
in the big field of history Joseph IL, as Mr..
Carlyle says, was one conspicuous example of
the disappointment and overthrow which await
men who mistake lf-genius for the whole.
One may see the same result following from the
same causes in the smaller field of private life,
and the spectacle is much more instructive un-
der these more familiar circumstances. There
are several ways in which half genius may fall
short - several points at any one Of which the
incompleteness may make itself visible. One
half genius may have Just those valuable quail
fcations the lack of which hinderS another from
being perfect. Want of cleverness is most sell
dom of all the fatal weak point. The world is
brimfull of cleverness, with less improvement
in the general aspect of things as a consequence
than sanguine persons might expect man
of half-geniuS-th is, OF clear sight and high
aims, but without come one thing needtul-l Is
commonly clever enough for all practical pur-
poses. The more frequent case is that of the
clever people who think that cleverness alone
makes up genius, or at least half genius, while
in truth it does nothing of the kind but on
the contrary, is constantly found where there
is no spark of anything akin to genius. Now
and then we meet with somebody who appears
to abound in she qualities that constitute ge-
MUS and yet who makes no use of them, or at
least procures from them no proportionate out
come, simply from his want of that shiftiness,
rapidity, Aexibility and brightness which are
all rather vaguely summed up in the popular
name of cleverness. But this is not very often
the fatal obstacle that prevents a half-genius
from being anything more. Itwould be much
truer to say that excess, rather than defect of
rapidity, brightness and stiffness, is the
stumbling block in this direction. Excess of
rapidity means defect of patience; andif want
of cleverness is the least frequent, want of pa
tience is the most constant secret of man stop
ping short at half-genius. And there is a dr.
ference between want of patience and want OF
industry, although the two are constantly con-
founded among people who do not mucn care
for discrimination in speech, and VINO iove 10
have q dozen synonyms for their single iuea'
In reality, the most active and industrious Oh
men are often found to be also the ne, mosS illl-
petuous, hasty and fighty, with niue nuea ;.S -
to the meaning of patience, inucn IloIe ; MIS.l-
out any capacity for the practlce OF tna5 aunl!-
able virtue Impatient, unceaslng INDUSTRY Is
one oe the most dangerous characteristics that
oAU 49, -, nan have. 1t fills him with natural
hone of results, and yet he is all the time ar,
aoa,ls unrayelling as much as he weaves. ALI
ths, Se niles up busily with one hand he pulls
's.nabIsamently down with the other Or else his
;nnatience nullifes his industry in another way.
Il drives him to scamp his work. lie labors