The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-05-28
DELUsION ABOUT GENIUS.


It is common mistake, especially
with young men of ability, to suppose
| that what they call genius is sufficient
for success in life. They sneer at the
studiOus as "mere plodders," and boast
that IL Is only necessary to apply them
selves for a few minutes in order to
conquer the most difficult tasks. We
have seen, in our time, many such. We
have observed them, moreover, IN every
walk of life. We have known them as
quick working mechanics, as brilliant
disclaimers in debating societies, as wit
ty or eloquent students in college. But
we have lived long enough to notice
that most of them have made ship
wrecks of themselves forever. Tie
smart mechanics, disdaining to work all
the week when four or five days labor
would produce as much as others earn
ed who toiled from Monday morning
till Saturday night, has generally ac-
Quired habits of dissipation, and ended,
sometimes, in the penitentiary, but
more frequently in the drunkard's grave.
The snowy orator has become a lazy
lawyer, or good-for-nothing editor, or
pot-hOuse politician. The idle, though
able student, has sunk into "fast /"
young man. and died before he reached
forty, the victim of his own excess. AS
classes, scarcely twenty years ago, we
see, alas! that almost general ruin has
OVertaken them.
That there is naturally n difference
between men, III point of ability, we do
not pretend TO deny. The difference is
less great, however, than is generally
supposed; and no genius, moreover, is
sufficient of itself without discipline and
study. The difference, we say, is not
so great as is usually believed. 1t is true
that one person may excel another in
what IS popularity called eloquence, but
generally he is deficient in something
else, as, for example, iH the purely logi-
cal faculty. A witty lawyer, able to
keep a jury i'll roar, may not be as
competent to argue a case in banc as Il
less felicitOus rival. An excellent book
keeper, to whom long columns of fig
ures are nothing, may yet have no NE
chanical faculty at all and a good me-
ehanic may be poor accountant, Ma
turc wisely distributes her favors, gen.
orally bestOwing different speciaiifies,
SO to speak, on different persons. JET
ferson was a great civilian, but had no
talent for war whatever. Wayne was a
splendid general, but quite an indiffer-
ent Legislator. Putnam could head q
charge gallantly, or defend post hero
ically, but had no head for planning a
complicated campaign. In more hum
Bile life we see similar proofs of this diff
ference. There are woman, for instance,
who can cut and fit, as if by instinct,
who seem, indeed, natural born mantau-
makers or tailOrs. There are others
who always bungle if they attempt such
things.
Everybody, in fact, who is not an
idiot, has Il favorite faculty, or, to use
the prOverbial phrase, "a knack of doing
something" Now genius. in its true
acceptation, is knack of doing many
things; or in its narrower sense. a knack
of excelling i'll literature, politics, or
war. But as, III the humble life, pro-
ficiency, even in that for which the per-
son has a peculiar faculty, is only to be
obtained by practice, SO, in the higher
necessary The boy, who is put to learn
a stone-cutter's trade because he is al
ways moulding figures in clay, never
becomes a sculptor unless he studies
hard. The youthful dabblcr i'll water
cOlOrs never rises to be Il great painter
without long years devoted TO his art
The lad, who makes a capital college
speech. ends i'll becoming a mere wOrdy
declaimer, unless he learns to think. Ii
was not only his talent for painting
which won for Raphael the title of ''di-
Vine," but the days and nights he de-
voted to mastering drawing and com.
position. The great Milton worked
hard at poetry, for thirty years, endcav-
oring to TO perfect himself before he be-
gan Paradise Lost. There is not fam
Gus name in history of which the same
cannot be said. To rely merely or
what is called genius, is to ensure fail
ure, nay! is to cast away OppOrtunitie:
bestowed by nature-it is, in fact, tC
squandcr, like spendthrift, the fortune
at birth.