, 1888-10-25
MEN OF GENIUS.
THE CITIES INTELLECTUAL GIANTS
COUNTRY BORN AND BRED.

LeatlnS men ana Leaning Lucas moi no
duced by the City-EasiIy Explained
by Natural Causes-TaIents Frittered
Away in Excitements.
Experience teaches u.s." says Mr.. Re
menyi, "that the great centers of popu-
lation are marked by a lamentable ster-
ility in the production of men of genius.
Precisely,as the city, with its 100, 900 in
-habitants would have to starYe if it did
not receive its regular supplies of food
from the country, so it would suffer inter
tellectual starvation if its mental supplies
were not, in all ssentia points, provided
from the country. Sometimes we find a
miserable, obscure country town pro-
ducing more men of original power thar
half a dozen large cities. Everything on
which our century prides itself, everything
that has made the age what it is, has
come from the country. The statesmen
and the soldiers, the artists and the in
v%entors, the men of learning and the
men of enterprise, nave all migrated
from some obscure corner of the
Ian to take possession of the
cities, as their barbarous ancestors mi
grated from savage wildernesses to take
possession Of the seats of civilization. In
Paris, Berlin and Vienna the natives are
largely in the minority, and the immi-
grants fill all the streets and houses and
occupy all the public places. So it is with
the leading men and the leading ideas;
they all come from the country"
A REASONABLE EXPLANATION.
Well, this seems a remarkable state
ment to make; but 1 think the author is
right, and that his proposition will hold
good, not only in Europe, to which his
article seems chiefly to refer, but in this
country. Make out a list of eminent
A poarioonc onl will Hnl tl,+ ,,or,
few of them were born in the cities. How
can this be explained? Mr.. Remenyi has
no explanation to offer; he has no theory
regarding it. 'It has always been So"
he says, ''and will always be so; the city
governs the fashions, but the village gov
erns the nation" l think, however, it
can be explained by natural causes.
In the first place, there are in every ma
ton about six times as many people in the
country and in the country towns as there
are in The large cities. This is a very
striking fact, of which everybody is not
aware. Many city jewellers imagine that
the majority of the population of the ma
ton live in the cities, like themselves; for
when they go to the country they see so
few people there it seems hardly popu
lated at all. In the next place, the ten
dency of talent in every country is toward
the city, because, like the cabbages and
pOldUOtS, IL Illus lu6 DeSJ market IDeTe.
The young painter, poet, sculptor, orator
or writer naturally gr~avitates toward
those centers where his talents are most
valued and command the highest reward.
If the city jewellers are themselves not so
richly endowed with genius they know
best how to appreciate it, and they pay
the best price for it.
EXCITEMENTs AMI sCRAMBLEs.
In the next place, the inhabitants of
cities are so absorbed in m~ultitudinous
occupations, in ambitious pursuits and
eXtravagant pleasures; so crazy il the
pursuit of wealth and so cranky in the
spending of it; so full of newspaper ex-
elements, and so fond of outside show
and glitter; so ben upon picking up a
little of everything and much of nothing,
that it is impossible they should have the
same chance for study, for large mental
growth, as those who enjoy the slow,
steady, quiet, ~leisurely life of the country.
Their talents are frittered away in the ex-
elements and scrambles of the hour, and
seldom does one of them think of becom-
ing anything more than "a clever fellow"
or "a good fellow" 1t is the dc story
of the slow but steady going tortoise beat
ing the smart but superficial hare. I
know from my own experience that
when l was in Paris l found nearly
every position of any Importance or re-
sponsibility filed, not by Parisians, who
had too much amour and plaisir in their
heads for business, but by young Ger
mans of good education, whose superior
abilities commanded good pay and po-
sitions in spite of the prejudices of the
French. Genius needs time, pains, pa
thence, to develop; many of the richest
fruits grow in the shade; and the finest
talents mature in obscurity.
Lastly, the proposition is not univer-
sally true; for there are many men of
genius, especially among the poets, who
were born and bred in cities. Dante was
born and bred in Florence, Lope de Vega
in Madrid, Milton and Spenser in Lon
don, Voltaire and Moliere in Paris, and
as to Homer, ''Three cities claimed him
dead" The city seems indeed more
favorable to poetic genius thar to any
other, for it affords the best field for the
observation of man in all ranks and CON
ditions.-Robert Walters in New York
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