The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-13

given on the subject Certain forms Of
genius, certain forms at any rate of some-
thing lower than genins-of intellectual acti-
vity--are undoubtedly most likely to appear
under certain forms of political or social life.
But genius, and mere intellectual activity
also, take such endless forms that It is hope
less to ley down any general rule as to this or
that form of government or state of society
being most favorable 10 one or the other in
the abstract.
We have been led into this train of thought,
as into so many other trains of thought, by
an article in the Times The writer, whose
article appeared in the course of last week, is
evidently far from being so rash and ignorant
as many of his brethren. He is trying to ac-
count for the real or alleged decay of intellec-
tual life in France under the present Govern
ment of that country. And, whether we ac-
cept all his facts and conclusions or not, what
he says on that head, as we'll as on the present
state of things in England, Spain, and Italy,
is worthy thinking over and weighing. He
has evidently looked with care and intelh-
gence at the present condition of all those
counties with regard to their current litera-
ture. It is only when he tries to deal with
past times, and to draw general principles
from what he fancies to be the facts OF his
tory, that he gets beyond his depth. We will
give the passage at length:-
Genius works in cycles; it has its rich and poor
crops, its prize and blank seasons, its so-caled
Golden Ages, Augustan or Medivean, influenced,
indeed, by political causes, crops by atmospheric
accidents, but obeying also other more general less
obvious or superficial rules, acting, not only nde-
pendently OF all political influence, but sometimes
even in antagonism to IL. The stage in the life OF
nation in which mental energy is apt 10 be at its
greatest height is that in which, after spell OF great
political commissions, period OF comparative ease
and repose succeeds. Thus the golden age OF Roman
literature dates from the closing OF the Temple of
Janus by the First Emperor: that Of modern Italy
from the termination OF medieval feuds ushering in
domestic tyranny and foreign dOmination that OF
England from the subsding OF religious dissensions
under the sceptre OF Elizabeth. Golden ages OF this
followed by eras Of silver Of IRON. Of bronze S and
even of lead A cluster of or so Of stars of
the first magnitude blaze out in the firmament but
these give way before minor galaXes and presently
to mere nebulp and utter obscurity."
The context seems to show that by ''genius
in this passage we are to understand, if not
exclusively literary genius, yet genius taking
the direction of some form of literature,
science, or art. For it must be evident to
every one that some shapes of ''mental en-
ergy" never have so much scope as in the
actual ''spell of great political commissions" 4"
The genius of the real statesman or the real
general is as much display of mental en-
ergy" as the genius of the poet or the painter.
And it is clearly while the great political con-
vulsions are going on that the real statesman
and the real general find their noblest oppor-
tunities. And some of the works of times of
this kind cannot be distinguished by any hard
line from strict works OF literature. What
does the writer say to oratory? Whether the
speeches of any given public speaker
of the literature of his country
depends largely upon accident or upon the
custom Of his age and country. The speeches
OF Demosthenes form part of the literature
of Greece; the speeches of Pericles do not
There is no reason to be given for this differ
ence except that in the days of Pericles it
had not become the custom for orators to
write down and preserve their speeches, while
in the days of Demosthenes it had. IL may
be answered that one or two speeches of
Pericles are preserved by Thucydides, and
doubtless, as regards the general sentiments
of Pericles, they are preserved. But no one
supposes that the report of Thucydides gives
us any idea of the style of Pericles; what he
gives us is the sentiments of Pericles trans
lated into his own style. AS literary
composition, then, the funeral Grafton of
Pericles is as much lost to us as the
countless other speeches of Pericles
which Thucydides did not report at all. But
though the speeches of Demosthenes form,
while the speeches of Pericles do not form, a
part of the literature of Greece, there is no
real difference between the two. There is
simply the accident that the one set of
speeches were written down and that the
others were not. The two sets of compost
tions were essentially of the same kind.
Pericles and Demosthenes alike composed
real speeches for real delivery, and, as far as
we know, they composed nothing else. They
did not sit down, like Isocrates, and write
essays or pamphlets which were meant not to
be spoken but to be read. AS far then as
oratory is a form of ''mental energy, we
always run the risk of giving one age an un-
| fair preference over another, simply because
the speeches of one age we're written down
while the speeches of another age were not.
But we will go on to the general rules laid
| down by the writer in the Times. Is his
| general doctrine true? Do his instances bear
| it out +? The first sentence of our extract
sounds to us a little hazy; but the second
| is clear enough. Mental energy, that is,
| the particular kind of mental energy which
the writer has in his eye, is to be mainly
| looked for in times when, latter O spell
of great political commissions, period of
comparative ease and repose succeeds
| The instances of Golden Ages" which the
writer gives-Augustan, Medicean, Eliza
bethan-allow MS to guess what he means
by great political commissions He does
not mean reign of terror like certai n
stages of the French Revolution; he means
times of great political change, times OF
| religious reform, times when mems
minds are naturally awakened and put
| on the stretch. Now a mere reign of terror
certainly does not lead to great displays of
mental energy ''The Republic had no need
of CHEMISTS" neither had it much need OF
poets or historians But surely times of great
political excitement, where the excitement
| does not quite reach that height, are directly
| favorable to mental energy. The crop may
be sometimes gathered in later and quieter
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