The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-08-07
GENIUS AND LABOR
The Hnrd Work Done by Bril-
Liant Brains.

Genius for anything, whether litera-
ture, exploration, discovery, science, art,
or war, not only wants, it requires, effort
and experience for its unfolding. Fred
erck the Great was incontestably born
captain; he had extraordinary courage,
fortitude, fertility of resource, invncible
will yet at his first battle, Mollwitz, he
fed from the field His army had been
victorious, but the sight of real war so
affected his nerves that he put spurs to
his horse and galloped miles from the
scene of action. How wholly contradic-
tory this of the prince, who by individual
force and exertion lifted his petty king
dom into great military and political
state who Increased his territory %,
900 square miles and his subjects nearly
100000! He had appeared before his
accession a sensualist, an aimless volup-
tuary, an empty theorist, a speculative
scribbIer; for he lacked opportunity,
scope, freedom-the things which effort
usually supplies to investigating or ere
alive genius. Having got what he had
lacked, he proved himself an eminent
commander, a sagacious statesman, a
profound political economist, an architect
of government. Men of the most spon-
neous in itht elIr arg rarely sPonta
menl-. Hard, absorbing work must
generally be done some time, either in
preparation or execution. Sheridan had
the name of radiant and ever ready
wit; he had but to open his mouth, it
WIS thought, and epigrams flowed thence
in sparkling stream. He was very vain
of, and carefully cultivated, such repu-
tation But he did not deserve it. His
astonishing readiness was a sham he
used to lock himself in his chamber, and
under pretence of recovering from de-
bAuch, slowly and deliberately devise the
fine speeches which he assumed to throw
off by sudden impulse. Some of his
vaunted impromptus cost him hours OF
reflection. The present text of "The
School for Scandal is totally different
from the first copy; not lines merely but
passages, scenes and entire acts were re-
cast and rewritten again and again. AL
most everything that emanated from hin
was the result OF much deliberation. He
was rare genius, but before he was sc
ranked, as well as after, he was a hard
worker. TennysOn's best poems seem as
if they had run in all their sympathy
and sweetness from his overlooking brain
But no poet has ever toiled more Ovel
his verses. He forms and reforms them
changes, grasses, reprOduces, files and
pOlishes them until those that stand
would never suspects their relation tC
their early and remote prOgenitors
Very few poems or writings of any KIND
that are reread or remembered but have
been wrought with copious brain sweat
As rule the offspring of genius, what
ever its nature, is born with exceeding
travail, although it is common to believe
it generated after the manner of Pallas
Emerson, the most original, if not thu
most profound, thinker in the republic
and one of the quaintest poets, is the
slowest of composers. He considers q
lines, which he is willing to keep, a gooC
days work-and they are, remembering
their kind He has been a professional
author for more than 40 years; he ha;
labored steadily, and the entire contents
of his wise little books could easily b.
put into a single octave. His fame j
worldwide his genius is universall
conceded but he has always toiled ter
ribIy; his whole life has been devoted t.
observation, meditation, comparison, an
alysis, speculation. Albeit not bit of
book maker, he has been in one sense
snpremely professional, Hawthorne
works are patterns of excellence in de
sign, detail and finish. In literary Eu
rope he is known where scarcely an
other American is; his rich genius ha
long been recognized on both sides Of tn
sea. But was a single chapter of hi
dashed off as most of US are inclined t
believe the writing of genius is? Haw
thorne has made no literary confessions
he shrank from the thought of exposin
his intellectual laboratory. But it is al
, together probable that his production
grew-grew with him, out of him, AM
into him again that they were wove
fibre by fibre; that they were the indeli
BILE photographs upon his mind OF sever
studies Of nature and humanity. Hi
matchless, hawless sentences show tn
most solicitous attrition, the ceaseless ez
ercise of enthusiasm for perfection
They appear so natural that they mus
be begotten of the deepest art. The
are the mingled product of great genlu
and great work, one always coming tn tn
aid Of the other, and preserving a jus
and beautiful proportion--APpleton