Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-08-25

There is no respect of classes with
genius 1t enters the cottage of the
poor, and the mansion of the rich. I'M
like what We call talents, it is i'll
herited by no one; like virtue, it is a
possession of the individual, and not of
the family.
Dr. Smiles, in his "Life and Labor"
prints list of eighty-onc names of illus.
trious scientific men, philosophers, poets,
novelists, dramatists, historians. reform
ers, statesmen and generals. Twenty
seven names belong to the aristocratic
class, twentyseven to the middle class,
and twenty-seven to the working class,
from which fact it seems to he true that
great men come from all ranks and
classes.
A great genius resembles Melchize.
dek, in that, intellectually, he is, with
out father, without mother" without
genealogv. He is his own ancestors
and posterity, for he begins and ends
with himself.
The Adams family, the Bayard fam
lily, the Breckenridge family, and the
Beecher family are illustrations of the
fact that great talents may descend to
the third and fourth generation; but
from these four illustrious American
families there has risen but one genius
Henry Ward Beecher. Six OF the
leading representative statesmen of the
formative period OF the Republic
Hamilton, Sam Adams, jefferson, CAL
houn, Clay and Webster have no gene
alogy.'
1t is hard to define the wora genius,
by which we express the subtle, elusive
something that makes man great. The
word itself, coming from the Latin, en-
phasizes mans belief in the supernatu.
raj origin of the something which dies
with him. For the genius of the Latins
was a guardian deity, which was born
and which died with the person whose
actions it directed.
Ruskin says that genius is the power
OF penetrating into "the root and deep
places of the subject" This definition
recalls Newton's explanation of his
achievements in science" always think,
ing of meaning his ability to con-
centrate his intellect on the subject OF
his search But then Newton, it may
he observed, was Very modest man.
He was more. He was unconscious OF
his great mind, and illustrated the re-
mark OF the Psychologist who said, mo
man was ever great man who wanted
to be one"
But John Dalton, the great chemist
who developed the atomic theory, held
with Newton that his genius was moth
ing but the power of patient industry
laboring continuously at subject until
he saw through it. We commend his
words, when complimented at IL public
meeting on his discoveries:
IF 1 have succeeded better than
many, it has been chiefly, nay, I may
say almost solely, from unwearied asst.
duty. 1t is not so much from any SUI
perior genius that one man possesses
over another, but more from attention
to study and perseverance in the objects
before them, that some men rise to
greater eminence than others. This it
is, in my opinion, that makes one man
succeed better than another"
Dalton's "unwearied assiduity" in-
PEELED him to observe and compare until
his death, in his seventy-eighth year.
On the last night of his earthly life, he
wrote the days record in his book OF
meteorological observations, of which
he had made more than two hundred
thousand during half century.
One cannot promise himself, and keep
his word, that he will be genius, but