Year: 1866

After CaQOVa s death a SOLD E0gIIS1 h
man called at his studio and inquired of
Canova's brother if he intended to carry
on the business How far he was wrong
in supposlng the thing could be done IS
matter Of speculation. Eminent names
are not wanting to support the theory that
all men have an equal aptitude for genius,
amongst whom we name Locke, HelYetIus
and Diderot They maintain that what
some are able to effect under the influence
of fundamental laws which regulate in
tellect, may be reached by others, who,
IN the same circumstances, apply them
selves to like persuIts. Button said of
genius, 1t Is patience. John Foster
heldEit to be the power of lighting ones
own fire. 1t has received many defni-
tions, laconic and otherwise but it is ap-
parent that the greatest men-those to
whom the world has been the most will
ling to accordthe hOnOrs of extraordinary
genius-have believed little In its power,
and have achieved those great results by
which their fame has been acquired
through years of patient and earnest toll.
The men whom we call geniuses have
been indefatigable workers. NeWtOn's 5
mind was Unquestionably one of the high
est order, and yet, when asked by what
means he had worked out his extraordin-
airy discoveries, he answered, by always
thinking about them.


There Is no royal road to learning.
The brain full of knowledge, whose activ-
ity sends CLEANS Of light over our path
way, has been acquired by hard and con
slant study. Every book and newspaper
which the careful or careless reader picks
up is filed with the results of laborious


investigation. Take a single issue of
daily paper, and see its selections of news,
its editorial leaders, its financial arti-
l.
Of daily fact, quips and qualities, its phil
Osophy and fun, how much care and labor
must be bestowed to furnish it all with
the regularity of ones morning meal. 1t
makes no pretensiOn. 1t Is furnished to
every man for fraction of what his ice
or any one of those simple luxuries of his
household costs him, and yet it is teeming
with thoughts which are constantly Influ-
encing his actions, and forming the opinion
of his children to govern their after lives.
Into the columns of the daily press come
the matured opinions of the greatest
thinkers and statesmen Of the Old World
and the New.


The press furnishes the means whereby
many of the formest men in Europe and
America live. 1t is the vehicle of COM
municating to the public the results of
their thoughts.


Nothing is more unfortunate to young
persons than to mistake an aptitude for
rhyme as genius.s There Is a sort of clever
ness which enables some sort of people,
with little labor, to acquire a smattering of
whatever Is being studied around them.
The possession of this cleverness Is often
their bane. If it should fasten upon
them the character of genius, they are
sure to collapse into failure. It is part of
faith In genius that work Is degrading
HencefOrth they are to live IN HUbibUS-
to feed upon their own stock of exalted
thoughts-to read nothing new, and, as a
consequence, forget what they have al
ready acquired For awhile they play off
their affectations of knowledge in the lit
tie circle of admirers which surrounds
them in social life, but little attrition
of the practical world soon brings them
down from the hifalutin " to hard
facts.


1t is impossible for an idle man to keep
together his certain stock Of knowledge.
Every day destroys the remembrance of
fact, a relation or an inference. He must
by constant study, add to his pile, or it
will melt away like ice before the meri-
dian sun.


The greatest poets, orators, statesmen,
historians and editors-men of the most
brilliant and imposing talent have found
it necessary to labor as hard as the copy
ist of a catalogue or the maker of die
tionary. The reason for the acknowledge
ed superiority of some men IS that they
have taken more pains than other men.
Gibbon was in his study every morning,
winter and summer, at six clock. Burke
was the most laboriOus and indefatigable
of human beings Liebnitz was never
out of his library; Pascal killed himself
by study; Cicero narrowly escaped death
by the same cause; Milton was at his
books with as much regularity as a mer-
chant or attorney. The greatest mind
| that ever lived can not exist upon Its own
| thoughts He who does not study that
which other minds have produced will
| soon exhaust his own and be reduced to
mere baroness. Hard labor is the only
method whereby men may attain that ex-
| cellence which IS worthy of the world s
gratitude We know that hard study will
not suffice to bestOW genius upon men of
| ordinary mould, such as was possessed by
| Shakespear or Michael Angelo. There was
| in them a combination of large brain and
| delicate fibre, the bestowment of Provi-
dence Such organizations cannot fail to
excel through industry; but they were
happily so constructed as not only to pos
sess the faculty of excellence. but the in
dustry to develope it.


While it is true that no man can hope
| to appropriate to himself the temple of


fame which by the common verdict of
mankind is appropriated to the Bard of
Avon, yet it is gratifying to know that the
men whose names will be handed down-in
the annals of science, in history, politics
and art, attribute their success to indus
/ try and application.


i Alas +" said widow speaking of her
! brilliant but careless son, "he has not the
gift of continuance" Wanting in perse-
Verance, such volatile natures are out
Istripped in the race of life by the dill
gent and even the dull.


The men who have most moved the


world have not been those of the most


brilliant parts; but the earnest, the pa


tient, the laborious, the self-reliant, the
Iindefatiguable, the ndustrious.-Balti-


more american.


Speak as you mean, do as you profess.


and perform what you promise


! We cannot earn genuine manhood except
| hv steadily serving out the Deriod of hou