The morning call., 1893-10-19
AT GOUNOD'S DEATHBED.

The composer G0unod, who died yester-
day at the age of seventy-ive. has been
com posing music for half a century, and
yet he OILY wrote one work which has any
life in it left. He wrote operas, oratorios,
masses, cantatas, symphonies and pas
torals. but all are already forgotten but
Faust" And that immortal work has
been so altered since its first production
that a spectator who had heard its first
production would hardly recognize it to-
day.
Men who achieve one success and many
failures are rare. AS rule, when a man
gives proof of genius once, he can be relied
upon to repeat the exhibition; and it gen.
orally happens, though not always, that
the author of mediocre works will con-
tinue to be mediocre to the end of his
days. Single speech Hamilton was an ex-
ception; Lawrence. the author of Guy
Livingstone" was another, and a third
was Alfred de Vigny. who exhausted him.
self in the production of "Cinq Mars" To
these persons, as TO Gounod. the divine
aff1atus came but once in their lifetime. A
modern example of the same caprice of
fortune is furnished by our own General
Wallace, who wrote a duh book under the
title of the Fair God," suddenly flashed
upon th world with a work of brilliant
genius in Ben Hur." and now relapses
into dullness with ''The Prince of 1ndia." !"
In those branches of human endeayor
which do not call for genius it is gener-
ally safe rule to assume that he who has
shown clearsightedness and Judgment in
early manhood will continue to exhibit
them throughout life. The rule some
times fails when the sphere of action Is
enlarged. We often see generals who
were admirable division commanders fail
when set at the head of an army. and rail-
road men who were excellent superin-
tendents of branch line prove incOmpe-
tent to handle a system. But the pre-
sumption is that he who succeeds in small
things will also succeed in great things
after reasonable apprentices and trial,
simply because the minds of the elite are
capable of expanding with the calls
which are made Oh them. AS a rule. the
soldier or sailor or engineer or merchant
who had done excellenty we'll in a small
sphere may fairly be expected to do
equally well when he is transferred 10 a
larger sphere, which is not the rule with
the artist in any branch. Munkaczy and
Verestchagin may paint as great pictures
fve years hence as they have ever done,
but it would not be surprising if they did
not
The rule is still more uncertain in the
case OF statesmen. After certain age
few political leaders increase their fame.
Gladstone and our own Ben Franklin are
exceptional cases. From some cause or
other the minds of most public men, long
before old age is reached, cease TO be alert; !;
they lose their receptiyity and their caDa-
city to learn. They adhere to obsolete
faiths and shop-worn doctrines and be-
come, as the boys say, back numbers.
Hence an ungra ateful public sets them on
one side, forgetting the services they rem
dered when they were in touch with the
times. 1t is quite moving to read the ac-
counts of the forbearipg indulgence with
which John Quincy Adams and w. d.
Kelley were treated in their old age and
Holman of Indiana is treated now. a few
heaven-born natures like Gladstone, and
in a previous generation Lafayette, re-
fuse to grow old and vie with the youngest
of their com peers in keeping step with the
march OF intellectual progress. But how
short the list. How little Andrew Jack
son had to tell his visitors at the Hermit
age in the days when he sat waiting for
the approach of death! bow feeble the
utterances of Winfield Scott when the
Confederate bugles sounded on the bank
of tha Potomaci