The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-09


mediocrity. Cromwell was over 40 years
of age before he ever saw squadron,
much less set one in the field; he had to
teach himself tactics before he instructed
his raw levies: he rose to the rank OF the
first soldier, strategist and statesman OF
his century. and displayed the greatest
powers for war and government OF any
man in English history. Measured by his
preliminary training, by his sudden rise
from mature obscurity TO meteoric fame
Cromwell in the field of action is as un-
accountable, as much of q mystery. as
Shakespeare. Of Shakespeare's early
youth, school life. parentage. ancestry, to
the age OF IA we know far more than we
do of Alexander Hamilton, the first
statesman of America, who died but
eighty-seven years ago. and lived In the
full light of publicity and heat Of politics.
We cannot account for Burns, Lord
Give. Washington. Napoleon, bismarck,
Shelley, Keats, Byron, Patrick Henry,
Gambetta, Franklin or Lincoln; Tor any
man of genius by the training OF the
schools Men of genius do not date from
great schools of learning. Genius IS law
unto itself; when its hour comes Tor which
it is the man, it does what 1t must. The
rare genius of observation, imagination
and contemplation is the mystery OF
Shakespeare; his very lack OF severe schol-
arship helped him; severe classical
scholastic learning might have depressed
his spontaneity, crippled with its load the
free natural motion of his eagle-winged
spirit. as it unquestionaby did in the case
of Milton, who would have risen nearer
Shakespeare's fight had he been weighted
with more knowledge and less severe
scholastic, classical learning. Ii Burns
had been ground out of Oxford or CAM
bridge he probably would have been
spoiled for such work as ''Tam O'Shanter,"
"The Jolly Beggars," Bonnie Doom" and
Highland Mary" or would have dis
dained it, and devoted himself to writing
polished, elegant verse, like Gray, full of
beauty of form without much soul, in
stead of poetry full Of the fragrance of the
wild rose; full of the voices OF the wood
thrush and the mountain brook.
The mystery of Shakespeare is the mys-
stery of Napoleon. Cromwell, Dante,
Sheridan and Grant. Nobody who knew
them predicted any superiority for them
until they had achieved it. Why? Be-
cause genius is a secret until the hour of
its execution and solution has arrived.
Talent does what it can and what it will
do can be predicted, but genius, which
does what 1t must, always has Its own Sc
cret, which it keeps until it is extorted by
the pressure of great events, the stimulus
of great opportunities and the inspiration
of great times, which stir mems souls to
their lowest depths. The hour of eruption
and action must come to such men; they
cannot, like a charlatan, force or manu-
facture an occasion for cheap display;
they rise with occasion, not above it, al
ways lead with the great impulse of their
age and opportunity. The secret of Grant,
Sheridan or "Stonewal1" Jackson's genius
for war was no more suspected by their fell
lows who knew them in peace than Crom-
well when he was an alehouse bully in
peace was suspected of having the stuff of a
soldier and statesman in him. Nobody
suspected Shakespeare of the capacity to
write great play until he wrote it; Ma
poleon of capacity to conduct great cam
paign until he won it.
Talent can be measured for its work,
rests largely on conscious effort, but
genius is serene, because it is unconscious
of its own reach and clutch and compass
T. D. Sc ,.-,kl ~
Then genius rises under the fierce light of
responsibility and the bracing atmosphere
of opportunity as steadily as the mercury
in the thermometer that is stricken by the
sun. This ia the true explanation why
Grant and Sheridan and "Stonewall"
Jackson surprised everybody. Like all men
of genius they had nothing to divulge until
the time came that clamored for its man.
War gave them that play and opportunity
that was impossible to warlike genius in
time of peace. Nathaniel Greene bending
over blacksmith's forge was an obscurity
in peace that gave no promise of genius
for war. Genius has its secret and re-
veals it by action, while mere tai
ent, instinct with ambition, schemes and
strives to force an opportunity to help
itself by assertion and conscious effort.
Wolfe, who captured Quebec. talked so
extravagantly that the elder Pitt on his
departure, said: "Must we trust an army
to that idiot2" and an English statesman
is on record as declaring that Nelson
seemed to have been the greatest fool he
ever talked with. "StonewalI' Jackson was
deemed before the war by everybody as
nothing but pure-minded, conscientious
pedagogue and religious crank. These
men all had their secret, but had it not
been for the war they would have 'died
with all their music in them, d" voiceless, be-
cause men whose peculiar genius is for
war are more likely to carry the cross Ia
peace than wear the crown of glory.
-
The plans of Benezette Williams, the
consulting engineer appointed for the pur-
pose of devising thorough sewerage sys-
TEN for Seattle, have arrived. On two
points he is positive. He declares in favor
of the special assessment method of pay
ment in preference to the issue Of bonds;
and that the cost will be about 100000.
The latter is a matter of technical calcula-
ton; the former is open to question and
must be governed to a great extent by
local circumstances.
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