The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-05-13

Tsmpest." .sTusissh Night" s-OsAeiIo."
~Hansy ~ Tosrth !" ~R0meo ana Juissf.
SIS goa Liks IL or he .Nerrhaat ~
yssics" soald b Iiks "a elephant ~
tsopsing 70 riss n the ~ and sing - it
roe iiks . skyiask. or 70 ftt throngh tns
nixhs Ike bsG Bacon oonld march like
. hsasy armed soldier. bat he couid not
siss - shs eagles Asght or move With the
1sssfns gfscs o. . fsvn through the forest
There 10 not Iins In Baeon's prose or his
ciansy verse shss jussifiss the belief III se
hs bsd . particle u high postlc imagina-
t3on he 80 shoat - eapaSss Of writing
ore Of ehsksspears's pssys - Benjamin
frsakiin was Of writing Bunyan's APn-
grim's Progress"
wbesvsr wrote these pisys u could nos
possibly have bssn Bacon: Ben Johnseo.
untvsrsIty scholar. soldier, man 81
~ world, . dramssac writer Of solid
genius. shakspsars's contemporary and
frtssd. bssn testimony - ths surpassing
ssniss Of shs man sAakspsass b no
more mysssry bseauss Of his absencs Of
so-eaiisA early advantages of scholastic se-
qufssmsnts and cuitnrs than Cromwell,
Marlborough. Nspsison or Aisxandsr
HamiItoa- We csnnss account Tor Burns.
Lord Olive, wsshinGton. Bismarck, Mira
bsau. Shelley. Keats. Byron, Patrick
Henry. cavour. Gambstta. franklin. Edi-
ssu. Gran. HAvthorns or Lincoln: Tor
any man Of esnius By the training Of the
schools. Men Of genius do not date from
great schools Of learning. Genius 70 Law
unto itself: when it, hour comes for
which IL Il the msn IL dos Whist IL must
The rare gsnius Of observation. imasins-
ton and contemplation 10 the mystsfy Of
Shakespeare. The mystery Of ehakspsars
10 the mystery Of Napoleon. Cromwell,
Dante. Csrvantss and host Of other Of
the WORLDS '.unaccountableA" Nobody
who knew them predicted any superiority
for them until they had achieved IL Whyf
Because genius II secret until the hour
Of its execution and solution has arrived.
Genius always hes it, own secret which IL
keeps until 10 b extortsd by the pressure
Of great events. the stimulus Of great OPP
portunitiss and the Inspiration Of great
times which stir mems souls 70 their low
st depths. The hour Of eruption and
sction must come 70 such men: they can
not. Ike . chariatan. forcs or manufacture
IN occasion for cheap displays they rise
With the occasion. NOT above Il; always
lead with the grsat impulse Of their ego
and opportunity. Nobody suspected
Cromwell Of having the soldier and statss-
man In him until he was over
% years Of ass. when. without any
effort Or preliminary training. he
displayed the greatest powers Of war and
government Of any man In Engiish his
tory. Nobody suspected 6hakspsars Of
the capacity 70 write great play until he
wrote 1t; Napoleon. Of capacity 70 conduct
. great campaign until he won IL. Talent
rests on conscious effort, but genius IL
serene bscauss IL y unconscious Of it, own
roach and clutch and compass until Il -
face to face with responsibility. Then
genius rises under the fierce light Of re-
sponsibility and the bracing atmosphsrs
Of opportunity - steadily - the mercury
In the Thermometer that 10 stricken By the
sun.
Men Of genius have nothing to divulss
until the time comes that clamors for iss
man. Genius has it, secret and rsvssis :.
BY action. while more talent, instinct With
ambition, schemes and strives TO force On
opportunity to help itself BY assertion and
U.fe
Quebec, impressed Ensiand's great war
minister, Lord Chatham. ~ IN ''idiot;"
Goldsmith made the same impression on
Horace walpols. and an English staten
man 10 on record - declaring that the
great Admiral Nelson seemed to him "ths
greatest fool he ever talked WITH"
There 10 nothing in the triding simili-
tude OF passages from 6hakspsars and
Bacon and other writer's OF his day. A
we'll might yoaseall Lincoln . plasiarist
because the finest sentence in his 0sttys-
burg speech 10 found in one Of Theodore
Parker's sermons printed fifteen years
before Gettysburg battle. There 10 not the
slightest historical basis for the Baconisn
hypothesis; and there 10 ample historical
proof from Bacon's writings that. while
he WAS very able man. he WAS utterly
destitute Of the splendid poetic imagine
ton which was incarnstsd In William
Shakespeare and nobody else Of his day
and generation. The historical evidence
and the spiritual evidence that Bacon was
not Shakspsars II impregnsbls. and no
body but . person possessed with the
pedagogue faiiaey that man Of genius IL
inexplicabls. unless he was also man Of
technical learning and scholastic culture.
. child of . college. ever entertained any
more doubt that Shakespeare wrote the
plays that bear his name than they do
that Cervanses wrote "Don Qulxots" or
that Napoleon fought and won Austsrlisx
MODERN soCIALIsM.
A