The Washington herald., 1912-08-12
REFINEMENT Is AN
INHERITED QUALITY
No Particle of Human Effort Ever
Goes to Waste.
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

1t is believed by some thinkers that
not a particle of human effort ever goes
TO waste. that when a great artist lays
down his brush for the last time, II does
not mean that that ends IT all
And so with the musician. the scientist
the astronomer and all the world workers
who study, labor faithfully, and-well.
then die. There may be a long lapse
when it seems that everything but the
tangible fruits of their labors died with
them.
But many years hence. these thinkers
say. little child may come to earth.
bearing what We call the nature-stamp
of genius. away ahead Of his brothers and
sisters. unlike his parents and superior
TO his associates. They turn back. as
many generations as they must, until
they reach the period when the great
worker-the artist, the musician. the
scientist or the sstronomer-devoted his
life to his labors and then passed on.
And there they stop.
Awakes Unexpectedly.
Triumphantly they assert-the glorious
fruitage has come All the concentrated
effort of those years of study and achieve
ment. sleeping during the generations
that had gone before. Unexpectedly awoke
and dropped its rarely beautiful mantle
straight upon the shoulders of a child.
And nothing was lost. for the child
artist wields his brush as II some magic
fingers were guiding and inspiring the
young musician handles the strings of
his violin as II A hidden power were whis-
perins every move to make: and the
scientist or astronomer early manifests
an extreme of ability so pronounced that
II seems as II years of preparation must
n haa, -4,- hnf 4,
And it must be something akin to that
that governs the exquisite gift or grace
of real refinement, the delicacy that
reaches the point of an art.
For sometimes II happens that in
family where uncouthness is the DOM
inant element, there is one member who
instinctively recognizes and shrinks from
coarseness. who knows the offensive the
indelicate. because a strain of something
fine whispers the message that surround
ings. companions, nothing else would con-
vey.
Was there in q generation long since
dead. some man or woman finer than
his kind and when he passed on, did his
art sleep and sleep through a succession
of coarser-grained descendants, to come
to life again when least expected?
Likely to skip Generations.
Sometimes. for generations, whole fam
lilies are musical. And sometimes, for
generations. there is a line of delicacy
that one hopes never may be wiped
out. II something happens that it dis
appears from mortal vision maybe II
will blossom later on when least ex-
pected
For it is something to appreciate, lust
how much one does not always fully
measure until a time comes when one
gets a look at coarseness where there
was a right to expect something In
fnitely finer.
II. under the surface. there is the finer
softer grain, a man or woman may be
trusted to speak or to write without
fear of offense.
And If. under the surface. there is a
strain Of indelicacy. we may be GER
tain II will come to light sometime in
all its ugliness, for there is nothing to
warn against its utterance. nothing to
tell that the printed or spoken words
betray that part of self that might well
be concealed.
Must Expect Criticism.
The many men and the few women
In public or semi-public life must ex-
pect publicity, comment. criticism, even
abuse; and they have no right to draw
the line too finely about their own per-
sonalities and their own private lives.
II it happens that eccentricities are
brought out. they cannot afford to be
oversensitive even then. But when a
writer. in order to color his little screed
to be funny or something else. over
reaches the boundaries of good taste
and becomes extensively personal, then
all who read must wish there was some
fine ancestor to warn him of danger and
tell him to stop.
For sometimes when one reads the
stuff that gets into print. offered to
thinking men and women. one can only
wonder how far back she would have
to go before reaching the fine strain in
the family line Of that particular writer.