The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1889-05-03
the splendid ediices in which they
were delivered or exhibited.

highly than men of genius. None OF
the millions Of Shakepeare's admirers
appreciate the poet so keenlv and ell.
Enthusiastically as Coleride and Goethe
themselves amGng the greatest of poets
appreciated them.
Whenever you find man who never
praises anything or anybody but in
very moderate terms, you may be sure
that he hemself is man of moderate
talents Large appreciation and high
admiration Of excellence are generally
indications of large powers and high
talents in the appreciator or admirer.
The man who loves, therefore, to as,
sociate with men of genius, either per-
sonnally or in their printed works
who dotes on their masterpieces, and
feels some of the enthusiasm in reading
them which the author must have fell
in writing them-such man gives. by
this very circumstance, presumptive
evidence that he possesses genius.
'Then," somebody may say. "all
those who appreciate Homer and Mil
ton, Shakespeare and Scott, are men Of
genius Well, so they are, to a certain
extent; for believe that every man
who understands and appreciates q
work of genius possesses some genius
some sparks of fire. All these admirer;
of Homer and Milton, Shakespeare and
Scott, who themselves produce nothing
have something of the spirit of these
great masters; something that cores
ponds with or responds to what they
find in their works. They find a
picture of their minds in certain phas-
es of their lives in these great masters
reproduction of their own unexpress-
ed thoughts, desires, longings, dream.
ings, and doubts, and they are delight
ed to see that others have thought, fell
and dreamt such things as they have
What they are lacking in is the power
of expression, the power of embodyine
their conceptions in some poetic or ar
tistic form. Renan says somewhere
that "the finest thoughts are those
which have never been expressed;" and
perhaps these very admirers of the
great masters have many such thoughts
That is just where genius comes into
play; for only genius Can give ade-
quate expression to certain conceptions
of the mind. Every man and woman
and especially every child, lives al
times in celestial region which few
can describe; region such as that in
which st. Paul found himself when he
was taken up in heaven in vision
and which he found he could not de.
scribe when he came down. Charles
Dickens often lived in such regions
he has Swallowed forth in the thoughts
of little Nell and other characters
Shelly used to run up to an infant, put
his ear close to its lips, and listen with
the expectation of hearing the language
of the spheres! Poor Shelly! he nc
doubt had sometimes thoughts and
visions which even his genius was in.
adequate to express. For
Thought is deeper than all speech;
Feeling deeper than all thought;
Souls TO souls can never leach
What unto themselves was taught
Now this lack of power to produce
on the part Of the admirers of geniu:
may not be inherent, but proceed from
want of training, want of special cul.
ture in given direction They have
been compelled to devote their whole
energies to the production of food, te
the gaining of a living for themselves
and Others, and thus certain powers ol
their minds have lain dormant and in
active. The poor souls have thus been
denied the possession of faculty
which they have simply been unable
to develop. Not that they CO I'D, IL ,del
any circumstances, have become Ho-
mers, Millions, Shakespeares and Scots
but they might possibly have done
much finer work they have done; they
might possibly have equalled many
clever men who have had greater ad.
vantages. The writer of this paper
would certainly never have been able
to write what he is now writing had he
not in his youth been placed, accident
ally or providen,ially, at the trade of a
printer instead of that of shoemaker
or Il carpenter. At this trade he be-
came familiar with the expression of
thought, which he would not have
done had he been made shoemaker or
q carpenter. So with thousands of
others. We are largely the creatures of
circumstances. Individuals make the
same experience as that of a race; for
civilization did not begin until the
Nile, by its fructifying overfowings,
caused the earth to produce sponstan-
eously abundance of food, and thus af-
forded men time to think, study, write,
build and acquire that mastery that
comes to natural aptitude from the
hardest study of any art or science"
lagree with Pope's famous dictum:
True VT is nature to advantage dres eli;
What oft was thought. but ne'er 30 well expressed:
Genius simply expresses what all
men think, or hope and fear. And