Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-07-21
NANTES OF GENIUS.
of the Amusing Weaknesses of Mex
 Who Achieved Fame.

[
 Who Achieved Fame.
 ftoper pride, which may mean self s7zsect. is certainly most comnenda- bIs: but pride, as it generally manifests ;tse1f. is repulsive and is apt to stir ur ., ef,irit of opposition. Pride is peculiar fa mem. and vanity to women. Pride sndicates our appreciation of ourselves, 2 na vanity and intense desire to be ap' ,reeiated by others. Simplicity is usu' 4j4va characteristic of great genius nit frequently men conspicuous for 4fsir talents have shown their weak . aess through an impulsive form ot nride Buffon, the famous French nat ..rslist. was so excessively vain as to hecorne the butt of his friends. When asked how many great men Ike world had had he replied: < {. Five Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Manfesouieu and myself" This re- taarkabie man was not only proud of his own intellect; though really very homelv, he believed himself to be a model of manly beauty. Even when a f work in his study he was always in full dress, and never took a walk i'll his garden without being accompanied by his valet.
 Gibbon, the famous historian, left, ip .biS private diary, his opinion of him. Sself. He says II am the greatest his torian that ever lived. No one can Iaanal nae in this direction, and 1 fear no szvcessor. "
 Disraeli's faith in himself was un bouuded: though he tried to hide his vanity from the world, it would assert itself He succeeded as a novelist and statesman, and so great was his own Belief in the uniyersality of his g6nIus that he told his intimate friends fhat lie would have been equally sue cessful as painter, a sculptor or mu- sician. if he had the time to devote to those arts.
 Victor Hugo was the embodiment of vanity. In his letter to Prince Bis narck he used this expression; ''The 5jant greets the giant, the foe the foe, a1e friend the friend. I hate thee furi- uisly. because thou hast humbled france, I love thee because l am rreater than thou art Thou vert si- ent when the bell in the tower of my a1ne struck nay eightieth year. 1 am aqht and thou art seven, and mankind the cipher between us. Thou art he body; I am the soul. Thou art the loud; am the lightning. Thou art he night am the fame;' and so on trough long rigmarole of self-lauda- ion.
 Nearly all the French writers of note ave this peculiar form of weakness.
 alsac was very sure that he was not nly the greatest writer of his day, but fall times.
 Dickens shows this peculiar form of s1sity in his private letters. In one
 ace he says: ssI would not write at all
 2 were not the vainest man in the :. prld A writer who knew the great as 5velist well says of him: '"Fhere is
 unity Id everything which he said or a or wrote in all his life long, and it apf growing to the end" Walt Whitman might be called onstar of egotism. Speaking of him.
 iffn one of his poems, he says: "Di- ) ne am l. inside and out, and make
 av Whatever touch and am touched
 Pope. who was one of the homeliest
 naortals, was also the vainest, and
 ssangry at Lady Mary Montague be-
 use sl1e did not think him as hand
 ms as he thought himself to be.
 Goethe was the vainest man in Ger
 any in his day. Indeed, we might lieye fhat vanity is an essential laS euliaritv of penius. were we not con- esf snted with the fact that the greatest ieE aH 9eniuses, Shakespeare, was with
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