The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1880-06-07
THE LONELINESS or GENIUS.

there Is something pathetic ~ the $50
lation Of any being from lis kind. The
prisoner in Ills dreary cell, cut Of from Al
intercourse with his feIlow-man !; the set
tier ii his lonely cabin on the frontier Of
some new country the advance guard Of
the civilization that IS % follow; the man
or woman cast out from society for their
misdeeds. Stunned and dreaded BY all /;
even the fierce animal taken from the jun
4 gle Of his native land and confined in 4
marrow cage that IS to be his home until
death shall come to set him free. are OBJ
ljects that excite every heart not totally
devoid Of sensibility.
Yet there IS a loneliness more pathetic,
more painful, because more complete. than
any of these. This is the perfect isola-
ton Of the true genius from the crowd
that he meets and passes day BY day,who
look upon him in the body, while his soul
lis as far away from them as is the cloud
encompassed summit Of Mont Blanc from
the traveller who stands at its base, and as
invisible to their dull eyes As are the gold
paved streets Of the celestial city TO the
Host spirits who dwell forever in the do
lIminions Of Pluto.
For every gift that God has bestowed
upon man penalty has been added, and
hefwhose mind has been created to soar
beyond the comprehension Of the MAORI
lily Of his fellow-creaturesr must be content
ID stand aloof from their common joys and
pleasures for in them for him there can be
no compensation. The spirit borne aloft
on the pinions Of genius and inspiration.
after basking in the full light Of the sun.
Cannot return and mingle with the com.
mon herd, for he would be as incapable
Of descending to their level and being in.
terested ID their pleasures and pursuits, as
would they Of understanding bis highest
thoughts and approaching his most beau.
tiful ideas. Of all men to whom it has
been given. to ascend to those bright
realms Where Fancy's golden orbits
roll, " none have perhaps more fully IN
derstood and accepted this penalty at
tached to genius than the bard of bright.
sr days and deathless fame, the unhappy
| White" = and none have resisted it more
bitterly orfonght against it more fercely
than Lofd Byron. The former recognized
The fact thatahe had been placed upon an
eminence aboveEthe crowds who pant BE-
lev in the dusty tracks, feeling his su-
periority, y did not seek pleasure or con.
seniality III their companionship; but the
life Of the1latter was one. long struggle
With destiny-a fruitless search for spirits
such as could understand the height and
depth Of amind that could call into ex-
istence a Manfred holding communication
On the wild and lonely mountain with be-
ings from the shadowy world of hereafter
ct a Sardonapalus lighting his own funer-
q pyre. In youth, he vainly thought to
satisfy this hunger Of his soul, this long
ing for congeniality with love. His unre-
quilted affection for Mary Chaworth has
been said To have been the cause Of his
giving to the world such a poem as
l''Childe Harold, but it was only the ef-
feet Of that vague, unsatisfed desire for
mental companionships that proclaimed
him one set apart from his fellow-men.
the possessor of rare and unsurpassed
genius. Would he have been happier
man if this precocious affection had been
sratifed by a union with its objecte =
Could the mind that could create such
companionship for itself as that Of Man
fred, Cain, Sardonapalus, and that coun-
terpart of his own stormy and defiant ma
fure, the Corsair, have found any congo
l4niality. any affinity Of soul in one of such
coarse mental calibre as Miss Chaworth?
No; no more than it did later in life,
when he sought it in friendship that he
castrecklessly aside, in the love Of wife
whom his harshness drove from his home.
or into theIabysses that he sank into after
wards, fromwhichhe shrank back at times
seeking and finding in degree. society III
inanimate nature, as he tells us in some
Of his most beautiful lines IS ~
| There Isl pleasure in the pathless woods
There IS rapture on the lonely shore, #6.
There n society where intrudes.--
Bythe deep sea and music in it's roar. !" I
The main cause Of happiness, as far
as human relations are concerned, is asso-
citation with those who can sound the