Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1906-06-21
THE SECRET
OF GENIUS.

There are many people whom we
know through correspondence.
through their work. through re-
suits, whom We profoundly admire,
and yet meeting them is danger
GUS matter. We are SO apt 20 find
them pitifulls human, after all. Then,
again. there are people of whose liv-
ing We can find no visible results ad-
eQuate 10 the charm. the beauty, the
wisdom OF their daily course. We
wonder why pictures and music and
poems do not drop from them as they
pass, so exquisite is the spirit with
which they meet the circumstances
of the moment. Well, it seems to be
a matter of collectedness Men va
ry,' sage said, according To the
swiftness OF their responses to the
infinite" How much OF ones real
self can man collect on the spur
of the moment and bring In TO play
at the badinage of a dinner party?
How much OF the immortal spirit, the
part which in our serious moments,
We actually deem worthy to- endure
beyond the three-score years and ten.
can We put into fighting the wind
and the mud, the whips and scorns
and contumelies OF chance? How
much of big serenity can we gather
into the smile that accepts our in
eyitable failures? Men vary in great
ness really in proportion as they can
act from the whole self rather than
the partial self \ says. genius, "A
great man habitually acts from the
whole self. Prejudice, desire, inner
tied and habitual leanings, fear, are
4 o." "D's hh'' ~ Nut NhOlt sell WHICH
stands beside" It's treasure is not of
the earth. nor of time; IT neither
stands nor falls by the small happen
ings OF the moment; it is not consum-
ed by any sense OF gain or loss. II has
the serenity, aye, the gladsomensss,
of the great venite with which we
open our lips on the seventh day
when first we sing at mathis.
This recollection, this holding ol
the casual and the temporal self to
{ its immovable and everlasting part,
is the secret of charm, the basis of
proportionate values and the crown
ing gift OF genius.
Fancy the detachment Of Shakes
pcare. He lived apparently with
zeal and interest in the most com
monplace of lives; he was an actor,
a playwright, a stage manager, with
somewhere at the back of all this
activity the quiet to observe Portia
and Rosalind and Beatrice going the
primrose path of daliance; he was
friend and a lover, concentrated
and passionate to the point OF giving
/ the ultimate and unsurpassable ex-
preston to human love in the son
nets, and yet had that chnd-like
peacefullness and confidence which,
in idle moments, become the familiar
OF Puck, Queen Nab, and Ariel; he
conducted "A small lawsuit, saved
money. bought a country house, and
made himself landed proprietor
while in the still watches his heart
bled over the grierstricken will par
alysis OF Hamlet, or wandered al
night through the raging storms with
the mad old king. We look on and
wonder how Shakespeare could see
and know the whole world of thought
and feeling BY some strange and
fortunate combination Of circumstan-
ces he was able to draw on the whole
self. We all have Midsummer
Nights Dreams and Macbeths latent
within us, II we hadn't we should
not so thrill with delight when We
find them, but our whole SELF is in
accessible. Harper's Weekly.