Year: 1874

ls Tests Of Greatness.


If all the untested generalizatious
and connotations that are acceptedinthe
world we're brought 70 book, and, when
found wanting. ordered to execution,
there would be much slaughter. Only
platoon firing on large scale would
meet the case. When we use the words
''a great man, have We any definite
idea of what we mean2 Here I fOresee
somelo u VIII make answer, sfNo, not
q definite idea, but workable one.
Now, fine words are all very we'll, but
not If they help us 70 err and go astray
like lost sheep when We might do
better. Il. .. ---@.'-.


I remember reading that all great
men are great eaters. Does anybody
believe this? Yet there is share OF
sense in it. In human beings who do
much work, there must be great vital
force the furnace must burn well and
it seems to follow that It must take in
plenty OF fuel. But, after ali, that does
not follow; for it is conceivable that
one furnace might have greater power
than another of extracting force from
the same amount of fuel. One has seen
it contended that the mental power of
woman is equal to mans, because the
woman's intellect has less driving power
and works with less waste. As I sat
and heard this from lady lecturer
once. I had in my mind a picture which
would have pleased her mueh-ladies
are so serious. It was a picture of
Leech's in Punch. The train was on
the point of starting; all the passengers
but two had taken their places the !
wife was beckoning madly from her seat
in the carriage ; the guards and
husband were frantic; but nothing
would induce the tall, stout nurse, baby
in arms, to hurry to her place. She
would give the enraged husband leis-
urely explanation of the necessity she
felt under of looking to the plate, etc,
ETC., etc. 1t is certainly true that Gov
able) women are deficient in ''driving |
force" and long may they keep SO,
thought I


However, this is a depression. It has
been contended that the difference be-
tween genius and ordinary faculty con-
sists in the greater or less power OF as
similating certain kinds eff nutriment.
This looks as if the gulf between pro-
ducing beef and tea and producing an
Aristotle could not be very great. (Here
the scientific expert turneth up mis- nose, |
snorteth, saith 'sThis sciolist is ILL
read knoweth not of biology; is in the |
gall of ante-evolutional bitterness and |
the bond of pre-Darwinian iniquity."D


But, then, every man of genius is not
a great man. have read, again, that
every great man is, by the definition, in
harmony with the spirit of the age.
But why is he? And how are we to
know the spirit of the age What sort
of man was Spinoza, and what sort of
spirit of the age was he in harmony
with ? I could easily, but decline at
present for good reasons, make out a
puzzting list for you. And, even when
you had very plausibly made out your
spirit of the age and your harmony of
your great man with it, I should say,
"A All this is an ex post facto hash of
uncertainties. I repeat the question,
What is the spirit of the age? You may
think you have got it and yet all the
while some trife is happening round
the corner which will flood the world
with quite another Esprit" before the
hands have been round the clock. |
'sThe stone that the builders rejected"
and so forth. But did not mean TO be
so serious. I was thinking, when I
wrote, "round the corner" of Sam
Weller and Mary "Ah, my dear, if
you know'd who was here, you'd change
your note, as the hawk observed TO his
self with cheerful laugh ven he heered
the nightingale a singin' round a cor
ner." Il have not read ''Pickwick" since
the deluge, and dare say that is wrong.) |
But in one thing am quite serious
there is always something waiting round
corner with cheerful laugh all is
influx and effiuE and, to say that such
a man is great, partly because he is in
harmony with the spirit of the age, is
only giving one nut to crack which,
ten to one, when cracked is empty.


The first time ever asked myself
what great man is, was, I remember,
when I read Charming on Napoleon
Bonaparte. He says something like
this


sit would be difficult to inquire
whether he was great or not the mar
who, in a few years, has changed the
face of Europe, has taken out of our
hands the question whether he shall be
called great"


Here then was first glimmer Of guild
ance. We call man great primarily
with reference to the force he shows.
But there is necessarily great uncer-
tainty in all such classifcations. It is
possibIe-nay arguable-that Watts
''divine and moral songs" have had IS
much effect on the worl 1 as NapoleOn's
victories, but hope no one would call
| Watts a great man.


And I also hope 10 one viii take this
/ playful chatter of mine for more than
it is meant. -1fatttet0 BrO50ne.


The LOcomotion Of serpents.