The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-01-07

~ il shsy were excers5o7s 10 tAsaE social
class 10 their intsrTnitiss and inmo-siifses-
They we're exceptions 70 their soesal class
In their astonishing intellectual power,
bot they we're probably quite IS well BE-
havsd In eondac. and morals as the great
mass of inselligsat humanity ard public
opinion IN which they lived s3d moved
and bad their being. The seotchrnen Of
bis day. from TIE clergy down toths con-
mon people, used alcohoi 50 freely that the
intern perzncs OF Burns woaId hsse ex-
cited Little remark had be lot been man
Of genins, political and religious radical,
who was hated and feared both BY the
Tory politician and the church So with
Byron as nam OF genius he was an ex-
espsion 20 the sristocratic class from
which he sprung, but his morals we're at
least ~ good a. those Of his sr.stocratic
peers. and had he not been man Of
genius, who wsrred with his pen against
the Tory powers that be in both church
and state, his irregular. erratic life would
have excited little attention.
Napoleon was bad man compared with
an aliruistic apostle Of humanity, ike
WiIberforce or Wendell Phillips, but he
was the child Of his environment the
French Revolution. Il there any promi-
nent active outdoor figure Of that great
volcanic social and political eruption who
was in his social and political morals or
his personal humanity any better than
Napoleon Not Mirabeaa. or Danton,
men Of great genius whose hands we're
soiied by base bFibss accepted from the
court; not Talieyrand surely, who be-
who trusted him. Napoleon made
war, but he made war with more human
ity than any of his captains. Massena.
Lannes and Souit were 50 rapacious. venal
and cruel as to call tor rebuke from Napo-
leon. Was there any military figure of
subordinate to him who has set Napoleon
any superior lesson in humanity or JUS
ticef Napoleon was the child of his en-
rironment, just as Bismarck in his virtues
and his vices was the child OF his environ
ment. Did Butcher or Alexander of Rus
STA set Napoleon any superior lessons Of
humanity in war or pesce7 Environment
has more to do in its formative influence
over mems character and conduct than in
heFited traits Of blood or stock
Evil environment makes spoiled chill
dreD," whether the child be a creature of
genius or merely of talent. Take Byron;
his iniirmities are not the infirmities that
are peculiar to man Of genius; they are
the infirmitiss of spoiled child" He
never knew q father; his mother was a
passionate. arbitrary, capricious woman
of the kind that beat their children IN
justly and brutality one day, and treat
them with foolish fondness aud injustice
the next. An sfieetionate, sensitive, high
spirited boy would be sure to be spoiled by
such q woman and carry the marks OF her
evil early formative training with him all
his days. Nobody can read Campbeli's
recently published life OF the great poet
Coleridge without feeling that his I'M
fortunate early environments made "a
spoiled child" of him. and "a spoiled
child" he was 10 the end Of his days. Had
mother OF George Washington: had
Coleridge's father been such parent as
the great DIR. Arnold was to his children.
We should have much less to write today
concerning the inhrmities of genius In
connection with these two great poets.
Coleridge was sent to boarding school
when he was only years old; he was a
dreamy, indolent lad, deficient in will
power, the kind of boy that specially
needs the support Of domestic affection
and guidance; he was wonderfully pre-
cocious intellectually, eccentric: he
wanted to be a cobbier's apprentice when
a school boy. and from Cambridge uni
versity he enlisted as dragon and served
two months Then he proposed TO found
Pantisocratic Utopia in the valley of the
Susquehanns in Pennsylvania lie was.
at the outbreak of the French revolu-
ton, sort of Brook Farm Bellamyite.
He began in religion as q Unitarian
preacher. His radical politics were OF
short life, for like his friends Southey and
Wordsworth he soon became an English
Tory and then a Trinitarian and a
thorough-going believer in the Estab-
Iished church. and . theologian. His
whole lie was record Of neglect OF his
duties as husband, of promises unper.
formed: Of failure TO keep his engage
ments. of alternate its Of Incidence and
activity: he was always a gentesl mendi-
cant. and . lifelong user of opium; he
began avast deal and as rule lef. nearly
everything unfinished. a fact due to his
use OF opium which kept him dreaming.
irresoiute, when he ought TO have been
doing. His father used 10 carry him abou:
from coffee house to coffee house when a
mere child and make this vain, marvellou.
child spout and reoits from books ciesn
beyond his years when he ought TO have
been playing like Q child with other
healthy children.
Celeridge was infinitely more Of q seoile 4
child than Byron. for Byron's energy O.
mind and body saved him from sloth, and
bis ''gln snd water" Was better than Col.
eridge's opium habits. aud Byron. like
Shelley. and utterly unlike Coleridse,
never "msstook weathercock for f,ar -
and Ike Shelley, and totally unlike Col.
erldge, Byron was capable Of noble disln-
tersstedness and seli-sacriilcc for prineinle,
ami would imroverish himself to psy
other peoples debts Byron when he as
poor paid CIT s.. 500 10 release Leigh Hun,
from debtors prison. while ColeridSs
abused q generous friend roundIx heean.s