The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-07-06
The Secret of Genius.
Christlan Union.

Christlan Unon.
 Genius is energy quite much as insight, whether 1t dwell In Shakespeare in Napoleon, In Michael Angelo or In Gladstone, 1t is always the mother of mighty works as we'll a of great thoughts. Shakespeare, Goethe, Tennyson, Lope dc Vega, Moliere, Browning, Scott, Thackeray Balxac, Hugo, hll great space on the shelves of libraries, as we'll in histories of literature Tn his "Lous Lambert" Balzac describes certain forces, when they take possession of strong personalities, as
 rivers of will '" there is impetus in these poten- tial men which sweeps away all obstacles and rolls on with the momentum Of great stream. In men of genius the tireless activity, the force- ful habit, often found nothing dannts them :; nothing subdues them they make all things trib- utary to selfexpression The story of the achieve ments of Lopc de Vega, of Scott, of Balzac has at times hint of commerce with magical powers SO difficult Is 1t to reconcile such marvellous fecundity such extraordinary creative force, with the usual processes Of production. Nature has fixed definite boundaries to the activity of most men there Ia an invisible line beyond which they powerless 10 go. Upon the man of genius no such Limitations are imposed if he drains his soul it is instantly reflled from some invisible fountain. There Is something magical about such an achievement as the writing of the "Comedie Humaine," with it's eighty and more volumes and its vast community of characters. The physical feat of covering SO much paper is no small matter one does not won- der that Balzac retired to his workshop with an unwritten romance in his mind and returned with the completed work, worn, exhausted, almost emaciated Such labors cannot be accomplished save by fasting and self denial. More than two thousand characters live and move and have their being in the "Comedy Humaine," and each is care fully studied, vividly realized, firmly drawn. In no actual community of the same number of souls Is there anything approaching the distnctness of Individuality the variety and force of character to be found in these volumes. Pioneers build hou ses subdue forests develop wastes. Balzac did more :; he fashioned world and peopled it. All passions, appetites aspirations despairs hopes losses abors suferiDgs, achievements, were known to him; he had mastered them, as If they were to serve no other purpose than that Of furnishing material for his hand. To have looked into the depths Of human life with 90 wide and penetrating & gaze to have breathed 6 soul into these abstract qualities to have clothed them with the habits, manners, char acteristics, dress, social surroundings of actual beings; to have lodged them in country and city Is there any fairy tale SO wonderful, any miracle wrought by genie or magician bewildering? Here, surely, are the evidences of the flow of one of those rivers of will which have more than once transformed society. One of the secrets of this marvellous fecundity Is to keep ones self in the mood and atmosphere. in which imagination and heart work arc as one harmonious and continuous energy. There is an element of inspiration in all great work which Is never wholly st command with the greatest as with the humber men it ebbs and flows. There are times when 1t comes in with the rush of the flood when the mind is suddenly fertilized with ideas when the heart is 'a nest of singing birds;" when the whole visible world shines and glows. There times, also, when its ebb leaves mind and heart bare and vacant as the beach from which the tide has receded. These alterations of ebb and flow, of darkness and light are not unknown to the greatest souls; they are the invariable accompaniments of that quality of soul which makes man the interpreter of his tel low and of the world which Is common ground between them.