The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-10
AN rEExPLIcABlE PUZZLE.
- r,,ar Facts about Marriages OF
Hen Of Ability
Iron. the london Spectator.

- character. and, as the PHRASE goes.
~sn ..chocse men by the eSe"-and there
'srtainly are people with mat. power IN
oh q deoree as 10 amount to glIr-mske
- -. " '-,arrioge, than other folk. The
,,ss.;on is difficult TO answer, because
49, e., 9, few people Of whom one colld
- ,,ertoin that they poss sSsed the gift; bnt
-, sLe,,ld on the whole think that the reply
- he in the negative. Illustrations can
,.rove no argument, where such majority
Inst remain unknown-.nere NAV be, for
i-s-ance. 500 men at the bar in every gen
n,.ation with special eyes for character
,.,,- Sill, those we have given are
s,,tIicis-t to prove that even
EMU. for selecting the right men
2 uo c-;,arantee for the selection of the right
80 and certainly no other form of abil-
,,v i Let any reader quickly glance over
m Thiscitou- Dyer's index published this
,qeok-we are not recommending his book,
,sfi,,h is a most unsatisfactory specimen OF
i b-os-pakipg-and he viii come, we thins,
i +, the conclusion TINT the failures so fire.
,naatJv seen in the choice of wives are in
~ wav confined to the foolish. Men of
4 Genius make them in quite curious proper
s5on - their numbers, and men of special
ability insc as often as the units in the null
q tirle. The lady who said of her friends
4 hat she bad given up attempting t. under
q stand why anybody married any
" t-lT El9Ss hA4DoN SNiA ~
Il ,st az confidently il her friends
u I'D included the ablese men ont of
4 twanty generations. Everywhere and az
\ Al times She would have found. among a
! .rsat ma jority OF sensible ssiectiors--1ue,
va fear. in considerable measure to the
act that a great majority Of women are
nod in all senses of tho word-cages of
rrterlv inexpicable laundering; cases like
I'd Stowelps, who married, in the full
rpeuess OF his unusual wisdom, a terma-
/ eant who hated him; cases which seem to
suggest that no mans choice of a wife is
/ rally dictated by his brain power at all.
/ Tue iadv, too, who said that saying was in
/ 10 way original Her judgment is the judg
| nent Of all mankind III all grades, or, 4 all
events. to be strictly accurate, of ali that
ntner limited section of manklnd-lu0, 0UO,
/ 40, PERHAPS in l, 200, coo, 000-among whom
nee choice is allowed at all Experienced
readers will bear us out in saying that in
no grade did they ever see circle of any
/ Size III which there was not at least one
couple whose marriage was pronounced
| uuinteligihl or one in which the perplex-
ity was not occasionally deepened by obvi-
| oiIs ability either in wife or husband.
What did he see in herH' or 'she in himf'
is sure 20 be one OF the many criticisms,
and the one to which there is most seldom
any repiy Sometimes, Of course, il is
stupid criticism, due not to any reality,
hut 10 that impenetrable veil which hides
US from each other, and which is intended,
perhaps to deepen the individual sense Of
Is,ponsibility. but very often in the cases
selected by the critics, it is as true as criti-
c,sm on appearance or peculiaritieS Of MAJ
rer.
That is, If you win think of it, something
& puzzle. Why should ability help
man, or for that matter o woman, 50 very
little IN choosing companion for life!
That genius should not help him is incom-
lrghensible, for though some of us know
,xacdy what genius is, we all know that,
vi stever it be, it is neither a%auSe nor
i coiscqUeGce of the possession of judgment.
5 A man of genius may be almost fool in
i the conduct of life, and constantly is so i'll
recuniary affairs, or, at least, used to be, for
s. the observant say that the old type of the
d heaven-boru who used to be always in debt
& IS dying out, and that genius and care in
d the use of money are 50 often now
q Uni ed that even publishers fail to find
them apart. and complain of the times in
& consequence. The world hardly expects
j man OF genius to marry rightly-though he
4 oitel does 1t, as witness the three great
n English poets Of our age-and half includes
bunder in matrimony among evidences of
genius. OF ell men who ever lived, Shelley
was perhaps the best representative of gen
us pure and simple, the man who mad
lllteD i1l lbS tltSK6b OJutE lttC-
lily whatever; and those who read of Shell
icy ard his marriage, somehow feel that it
vas III him to make precisely the same
bunder which, withoutindorsing any one
ot the modern libels on Harriet West
brook, one fees assured that he
did make. Observers may experience
any emotion at the plumbers of genius-in-
dlyuntiOn, or regret, or ScOrn, or even a
certain pleasure at finding the demi-godS so
Ike men but they are never surprised. The
secret belief which is quite ineradicable,
even after one has understood TennySon
and Browning and Matthew Arnold, three
q the sanest IL mankind, that there is
some relation between genius and insanity.
prevents all wonder, and Is probably the
ultimate, though often the unconscious
CluSs of the otherwise immoral tolerance
constantly extended, even by the good, to
those errors of genius" which in other men
they would heartily condemn. But
why able men should make the
sane blunder Is a constant cause
Of surprise. The common notion
tEat they are carried away by passion.
though true sometimes, must often be I'M
true, and ia any case does not explain why
passion, mems field of choice being wide,
does not fix itself upon the right person. 1t
Is said 20 be all summed up in the word
"attracticn"; but allowing its full power 10
love-" when real love exists, it is odd how
seldom the able who choose the one friend
out of the world so badly, choose their other
trends without some sort of Judgment. You
viii see a woman marry the man OF all
others least suited to her. and then gather a
circle OF friends round her whose exc slleHce
does, but increase her trouble by rendering it
moro conspicuous; and men do the same
ting, though it is less prec lived. A third
yDlanation-accident-h little in it, as
J has when put forward as an explanation
Of any unaccountable event, but it has
very little, and it is never accepted when a
man has enosen an impracticabls partner,
o. q swindling solicitor, or an agent who
cannot do his work. Besides, why should not
accident, if we are to take it as blind force
regulating chances, have gone right instead
OF wrong. There must be something which
clouds the Judgment, and the something, we
fancy, is always one of two things, either the
unreasoning. almost preposterous self-cor-
ddence which makes man quite sure that if
woman impresses him pleasantly he must
therefore understand her; and the other is
the acton of caprice, that mental impulse
when is independent of reason, AMI which
~ both sexes seems TO operate more
strongly in choosing a companion for life
taan on any other occasion. Why 1t should
% SO IS hard to explain but it does, and
we presume the reason TO be that on this
occaSion the will wakes up In unusual
"1Fength; that, in fact, caprice by which
we mean fancy independent of thought
"Uuiu govern able men very often In all