The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1874-01-28
Tests Of Greatness.


nd coDnotations that are acceptedinthC
world were brought to book, aud, when
found wanting, ordered to execution
there would be much slaughter Only
platoon firing on large scale would
meet the case. When we use the words
"a great man" have We any definite
idea of what we mean? Here [ foresce
somebody will make answer, "No, not
a definite idea, but workable one.
Now, fine words are all very well, but
not if they help us to err and go astray
like lost sheep when we might DO
betters
l remember reading that all great
men are great eaters. Does anybody
believe this? Yet there is a share of
sense in it. In human beings who do
much work, there must be great vital
force the furnace must burn we'll and
it seems to follow that it must take in
plenty of fuel. But, after all, that does
not follow; for it is conceivable that
one furnace might have greater power
than another of extracting force from
the same amount of fuel. One las seen
it contended that the mental power Of a
woman is equal to a mans, because the
wOman's intellect has less driving power
and works with less waste. AS I sat
and heard this from a lady lecturer
once, I had in my mind picture which
would have pleased her much-ladies
are SO serious. It was a picture of
Leech's in Punch. The train was on
the point Of starting all the passengers
but two had taken their places the
wife was beckoning madly from her seat
in the carriage the guards and
husband were frantic; but nothing
would induce the tall, stout nurse, baby
in arms, to hurry to her place. She
would give the enraged husband a leis-
urely explanation of the necessity she
fe!t under of looking to the plate, etc,
ETC., etc. It is certainly true that (lov-
able) women are deficient in "driving
force" and long may they keep 50,
thought I.
However, this is depression. It las
been contended that the difference be-
tween genius and ordinary faculty con-
sists in the greater or less power Of as
certain kinds of nutriment.
This looks as if the gulf between pro-
ducing beef and tea and producing an
Aristotle could not be very great. (Here
the scientific expert turneth up his nose,
snorteth, saith "This sciolist is i'll
read knoweth not of biology; is in the
gall of ante evolutional bitterness and
the bond of pre-Darwinian iniquity."D
But, then, every man of genius is not
a great man. I have read, again, that
every great man is, by the definition, in
harmony with the spirit of the age.
But why is he? And how are We to
know the spirit of the age? What sort
Of man was Spinoza, and what sort of
spirit of the age was he in harmony
with? I could easily, but decline at
present for good reasons, make ont
puzzIing list for you. And, even when
you had very plausibly made out your
spirit of the age and your harmony of
your great man with it, should say,
SO All this is an ex post facto hash of
uncertainties. repeat the question,
What is the spirit of the age? You may
think you have got it and yet all the
while some trife is happening round
the corner which will food the world
with quite another esprit" before the
hands have been round the clock.
''The stone that the builders rejected"
and so forth. But I did not mean to be
30 serious. I was thinking, when I
wrote, Ground the corner" Of Sam
Weller and Mary "Ah, my dear, if
you know'd who was here, you'd change
your note, as the hawk observed to his
self with cheerful laugh ven he heered
the nightingale singin' round cor
ner." Il have not read "Pickwick" since
the deluge, and dare say that is wrongD
But in one thing am quite serious
there is always something waiting round
a corner with a cheerful laugh all is
influx and etflux and, to say that such
4 man is great, partly because he is in
harmony with the spirit of the age, is
only giving one nut to crack which,
Ten to one, when cracked is empty.
The first 'time 1 ever asked myself
what great man is, was, I remember,
when I read Charming on Napoleon
He says something like
his
"It would be dificnlt to inquire
whether he was great or not the man
who, in a few years, has changed the
lace of Europe, has taken out of our
hands the question whether he shall be
called great"
Here then was first glimmer of guild
ance. We call man great primarily
with reference to the force he shows
But there is necessarily fgreat uncer-
5ainty in all such classifcations. It is
possibIe-nay arguable-that Watts
'' divine and moral songs" have had as
much effect on the worl as Napoleon's
but I hope no one would call
Watts a great man.
And I also hope 10 one will take this
playful chatter of mine for more than
it is meant. nt.-M0tthelC BrO1r7le.
A COLORADO paper describes young
whirlwind in that section, which was