The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-03-11
About g Genius"


possessog of the coveted quality may dis |
pense with those hatits which are ad- |
mitted to be so essential to man of |
business. We admit the existence Of the |
quahty--a- disposition of mind, often |
hereditary, which qualities a man for q
particular pursuit-but deny its impor-
lance, unless accompanied by the less
snowy but more sterling attributes of in
dustry. energy and perseverance. So i'm
portant are these characteristics that
even writers eminent for their knowledge
of mankind have asserted that an indi-
yidusl possessed of determined viii
can distinguish himself in any pursuit,
irrespective of predispOsition toward it.
Though we are not prepared to go TO this
length We conceive that little genius,
when accompanied by these qualities,
will go long way; whereas large
share of 1t, unassociated with such i'm
portant accessories, will be curse
rather than blessing to its possessor.
If there is one fact more than another
which strikes one in perusing the lives
of great men in any of the avenues
which lead to distinction it is the life of
INCREASING toll they lead, coupled with
such an attention to details as less gifted
men would have scorned. To hear some
people talk of aman of genius one would
think that the General had but to grasp
his sword and lead his men to victory; or
the author TO take up his pen, and the
| work which is TO charm thousands flows
readily nouHit. But in the one case the
years of toll expended in training these
soldiers, in mastering the science of
maneUvering them and attending to
camp details are forgotten; and in the
| other, If we follow the author to his desk,
we shall probably find, by the blotted
and interlined manuscript, the knitted
| brow, and frequent reference to books,
! that the work is not produced in SO easy
a manner as had been supposed. The
case of Sir Walter Scott may be advanced
| in opposition to this, for some of his
books were penned as fast as his quill
could "trot' over the page; but then we
must remember the years of preparation
he had gone through-thirtyf -four years
had passed over his head when he wrote
his Lay" and forty-three when "Waver
| ley was published-to accomplish such
| a result, during which he had stepped his
! soul in archaeological love, border le-
| gends and ballads, and studied character
with unwavering minuteness.
| At banquet given at Liverpool to
| Charles Dickens in April, 1869, he said
| that all that he could claim in establish
| ing the relations which existed between
| himself and his readers was constant
| fidelity to hard work, and remarked that
his literary fellows knew very well how
true it Is in all art that what seems the
easiest done is ofteptimes the most diff
cult to do, and that the smallest truth
may come of the greatest pains. This
was exempliied IN himself in remark
able degree, as the following incident,
related by Mr. Mundella, NJ. p, at a pub
lie meeting at sheffield a year after, will
show: A distinguished artist once said
to him: Z" When l was painting por-
! trat OF Dickens, twas arranged that I
should sit in his room while he was at
work. He was a most painstaking, in
dustrious and methodical man, and moth
ing would divert him from the regular
ity OF his habits. l was there for hours,
and he wrote, as it seemed to me, almost
| in anguish. i looked in his face, and
watched the anxiety and the care. saw
the blotting and the rewriting of his
work, and was astonished to find how
much he owed to his indomitable perse-
| verance." TO the same effect wrote Mr..
Arthur Helps in Macmillan June, 1870:
Those Who have seen his manuscripts
will recollect what elaborate notes and
continents and plans (some adopted, many
rejected) went to form the basis of his
| works. To see those manuscripts would
cure anybody of the idle and presumpt-
uous notion that men of genius require
no forethought of preparation for their
greatest efforts, but that these are dashed
of by the aid of a mysterious something
which is compIehended in the word
genius. 1t was one of Mr.. Dickens
theories and, believe, a true one, that
men differ hardly in anything so much
as their power of attention" Lord
Lytton-himself an indefatigable work
! er-was of the same opinion. what
men want" he wrote, lis not talent; it
is purpose; in other words, not the power
| to achieve, but the will to labor" and
| Lord Chesterfield had observed before
him: :" The power of applying our at
| tention, steady and undissipated, to a
single object is the sure mark of superior
genius"
| Take the testimony of two school
| masters of the highest class DR.. Ar
| mold, of Rugby, wrote, as the result of
his great experience: The differences
between one boy and another consists
MOI SO much in talent as in energy and
his successor, DIR. Temple in one of his
| sermons third series), says Nothing
can be greater mistake than to suppose
that genius dispenses with labor What
| genius does is to inspire the soul with
power tc persevere in the labor that is
needed; but the greatest geniuses in
4 every art invariably labor at their art
tar more than all others, because their
genius shows them the value Of such
patient labor and aids them to persist
in it,"
4 Lord Macaulay's industry was untir-
ing. he would spend hours in the library
OF the British Museum hunting MP what
i many would think an unimportant fact,
and those who read his well-rOun9ed
periods little know with what labor they
were produced. His thrilling narrative
tofthe Western Rebellion was not written
IN his own study but in cottage in the
Somerset marshes, in which he spent
weeks, SO. that no detail to be gained
from the spot might be wanting in his
description. To this quality more than
any other he was indebted for his fame.
Byron said that Sheridan had written
the best comedy, the best opera, the best
farce and delivered the best speech
| known. He appeared to his friends as a
brilliant wit and writer, producing
bon mot, speech or play without effort.
But when Moore published his manu-
scripts after his death it was discovered
that all was the produc. of toll and e1ab-
| Grafton. The wit he had been coming
| over in the morning he would wait pa,
| tientiy to introduce in such a manner
that it appeared an inspiration; and his
| speeches were often written several
times over and committed to memory.
| such sentence as the following would
be written many times before he was
satisfied with it: +" His tBonaparte's 81 are
no ordinary Notifications. His marteio
| towers are thrones; scepters tipped with
crowns are the PALISADES of his intrench-
ments and kings are his sentinels." The
dialogues in his plays were elaborated in
| like manner
Moore spent nearly eighteen months
reading up Greek and Persian works for
Lalla Rookh," and the result was that it
exhibited such fidelity TO Oriental man.
ners, customs and scenery that its
popularity even in the East was extraor-
binary, and people found it difficult to
oeiieye that its scenes were not peDned
| on-fhe spot The circumstance of this
poem, with its gorgeous Oriental scenery
and sentiment, being written durin4the
| depkh of winter, in secluded dwelling
in Derbyshire, is in itself q marvel.
Many of Moore's songs were also the
| product of much labor. On one occa-
| sion he wrote to Power: tSYou will
hardly believe that the two lines which
hadywith many hours of thought and
glovetearing, proposed 10 insert in the
Z .rx-f f,xn Il Ia