The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-07-17
MEN OF GENIUS.
THE CITIES INTELLECTUAL GIANTS
COUNTRY BORN AND BRED.

Leading Men aud Leading Ideas Not Pro-
daced by the City-Essiiy 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 lamentable ster-
ility in the production Of men of genius.
Precisely AS the city, with its lO0, 600 in
habitants would have To starve IL it did
not receive its regular supplies of food
from the country, SO IL would suffer inter
teilectual starvation il its mental supplies
were not in all essential points, provided
from the country Sometimes we find "a
miserable, obscure country town pro-
ducing more men OF original power than
half dozen large cities. Everything on
which our century prides itself, everything
that has made the age what il il, has
come from the country. The statesmen
and the soldiers, the artists and the in
ventors, the men OF learning and the
men of enterprise, have all migrated
from some obscure corner of the
land TO take possession of the
cities, as their barbarous ancestors mi
grated from savage wlldernesses 10 take
possession of the seats of civilization. In
largely in the minority, and the imm-
grants fiji all the streets and houses anG
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 q remarkable state
ment to make; but think the author is
right, and that his proposition will hold
,.,,1.
article seems chiefly to refcr, but in this
country. Make ont a lis: of eminent
Americans and You will find that yer,
few of them were born in the cities. How
can this be explained? Mr. Remenyi has
10 explanation 10 offer; he has no theory
regarding it, at has always been so, ;"
he says, 'and viii always be so; the city
governs the fashions but the village gov
erns the nation. ! think. however, it
can be explained by natural causes.
In the first place, there are in every ma
tion about six times rs many people in the
country and in the country towns as there
are IN he large cities. This j. 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
potatoes, il finds tire best market there
The young painter, poet, sculptor. orator
or writer naturally gravitates 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 AND scRAMBLEs.
In the next place, the inhabitants of
cities are so absorbed in muttudinous
occupations, in ambitious pursuits and
eXtravaCant pleasures; so crazy ia the
pursuit of wealth and so cranky in the
spending of it, so full of newspaper "a
elements and so fond of outside show
and glitter. so bent upon picking up u
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 serambles Of the hour, and
seldom does one of them think of becom-
lIk lHlIlB IMAM CltNtT
or "a good fellow" 1t is the old story
Of the slow but steady going tortoise beat
ing the smart but superficial hare. l
know from my own experience that
when / was in Paris / found nearly
every position of any importance or re-
sponsibility filled, 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 preiudices 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. Iope dc Vega
in Madrid Hilton and Spenser in Lon
don, Voltaire and Moliere in Paris, and
rs TO Homer, Three cities claimed him
dead" The city seems indeed more
favorable to poetic genius than TO any
other, for il affords the best field for the
observation of man in all ranks and con-
dtions. Robert Walters in New York
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