The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-14
RAGING CONCEPT OF GENIUS
IS IT 4 POPULAR FALLACY THAT
 GREATNESS IND

Humility Are COrrelntedf -Te nnyson'i
 sensitiveness to Cessation of Atten.
 tion-Landor's seIf-Ranklng With
 the Iron Duke-The Sublime Assur.
 ance of Disreeii-The Egoism ol
 of His Zarathustra,
 If it is love that makes the world go
 round, it is self-love that keeps it
 from tumbling to pieces. Conceit is the
 glue which amalgamates mankind into
 society, and vanity the varnish which
 preserves man from being saturated by
 despair, as the ducks feathers throw off
 water. From self-esteem springs the
 desire to rise; many a man would not
 strive to ecel did he not believe that
 he could perform his particular duty
 better than anybody else. Yet the
 greatest men are generally supposed to
 be diffident of their own powers, and
 genius to be the companion of humil- ity. Biographers have ever delighted in
 recounting the simplicity and self-de-
 preciation of their heroes.
 But genius is, as a rule, not combined
 with such qualities; the dominance of
 the ego is the very spirit of genius.
 Genius is not the infinite capacity for
 taking pains, but a profound self-reli- ance--a sort of mere esotic self contain ment. It is sublime confidence in pow
 CT of self which has raised many a man to greatness. Nor have heroes
 been shy in the declaring of their pre-
 tensions, though the very vastness of them has produced bashfulness in some. Homer probably knew he was singing for all time and Shakespere must have realized his immortality.
 Of poets pride there is an amusing story about Wordsworth. He Southey and Coleridge were one morning ram bling around Rydal Mount, when the glorious weather prompted Coleridge to exclaim that the day might have been ordered for the three poets 'Three poets" muttered Wordsworth; ''who are the two other two?"
 Tenysons shyness was merely the cloak of his sensitive vanity. He raved at the impertinent curiosity of tourists, but hated public disregard even more. His cloak streaming behind him and his wide awake hat were kind of ad- vertisement but he would not part with them. "Go away, you rude boy, what are you staring at?" angrily de- manded Tennyson of a small boy who persistently followed him on one of his walks about Haslemere. Don't you want to be stared at? What for do you wear those things, then?" asked the lad l.. l. t. r,,I that the poet blushed. Once, after fu- riously denouncing the passion for au- tographs and anecdotes and records of great men as the source of every crime and vice in the world, he plaintively said that the post for two days had brought him no letters, and that he thought there was a sort of syncope in the world as to him and his fame! In all seriousness Walter Savage Lndor asked Miss Martineau if she did not think that he and the Duke of Vel lington were the first two men in the world.
 Seventy years ago Jewish stripling, in the most affected of attire, went to hear ad ebate in the House of Com mons To his sister he wrote: Heard Macaulay's best speech, She'll and Charles Grant. Macaulay admirable, but between ourselves I could floor them all.' That this assurance was not mere braggadocio Disraeli's career proved; but the sublimity of it! When a lady asked him to recommend an in- teresting book to her, Disraeli charm ingly answered, When I want to read a good book,I write one." So, too Will liam Cobbett, When I am asked what book a young man or woman ought to read, I always answer, Let him or her read all the bols that l have written. "
 Different only in kind from the blus tering egotism of Dr. Johnson and the sensitive vanity of Goldsmith was the cool self-confidence of Macaulay. The splendid audacity of the opening sen tence of his "History" takes away the | breadth q purpose to write the His tory of England from the accession of | King James the Second down to time ! withi nthe memory of men still living. | I shall recount'-this, that, and the | other, to the extent of half a page of | intentions All this before writing a f word of the actual history. Scarcely a fifth of his audaciousely announced 1 task did Macaulay accomplish. His vast stores of knowledge made him a rifle more magistreial in tone than Whewell
 It was into Jewett's mouth that an In undergraduate put the couplet: 1T am the Master of this College;
 What don't know is not knowledge" To the same famous Head was attrib- tied the dictum: q am the Master of 3alliol college; Balliol is the first col ege in Oxford; Oxford is the first city n England; England is the first coun- ry in the world"
 Delightfully."- frank is Bjornstjerne 3iornson's, the Swedish poet and dram Ltist, opinion of himself. During his ecent stay in Paris he declared, 'There re two men in Europe who possess .enius, myself and Ibsen-admitting hat Ibsen has it." Ibsen himself has ,o doubt on the matter. Every after Ioon he sits for a couple of hours in a afe in Christiania to be seen and ad- hired of the people From time to time he famous Scandinavian buries his ace in his hat This proceeding Is not ue to a sudden inspirations; in the reat dramatist's hat is fixed a small 1irror and it is into this he peers con- tantly, arranging his hair with pock t comb! Such, at least, is the story j old by his admirers. There are other wing men of letters, belonging to our VII country, of whom the most childish a njty is racOrQeQ. But nobody thinks