"AM I A GENIUS?"
[Sidenote: True merit is like a river, the deeper it is the less noise
it makes.--HALIFAX.]
You hope, and perchance believe, no doubt, that when you have a full
opportunity to show the world what sort of timber you are made of that
it will look upon you as being a "genius." Almost every boy cherishes
some such aspiration. And why not? Such a trend of thought is to be
encouraged. It is proper and commendable. We would all be geniuses if
we could.
[Sidenote: We know what we are, but not what we may be.--SHAKESPEARE.]
The world admires a genius. If he is the genuine article it seeks his
autograph, prints his picture in books and newspapers, and when he
passes away it is likely to build a monument over his remains.
[Sidenote: Vacillation is the prominent feature of weakness of
character.--VOLTAIRE.]
And can we all be geniuses? Some say we can and some say we cannot,
quite. Some say geniuses are born and some say they are self-made.
When Mr. Edison, the famous electrician and inventor, was asked for
his definition of genius he answered: "Two per cent is genius and
ninety-eight per cent is hard work." On another occasion when asked:
"Mr. Edison, don't you believe that genius is inspiration?" he replied,
"No! genius is perspiration."
[Sidenote: Conduct is three-fourths of life.--EMERSON.]
This definition of genius quite agrees with that given by the American
statesman, Alexander Hamilton, who said: "All the genius I have lies in
just this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day
and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings; my mind
becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I make the people are
pleased to call genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."
[Sidenote: We must not yield to difficulties, but strive the harder to
overcome them.--ROBERT E. LEE.]
Helvetius, the famous French philosopher, says: "Genius is nothing but
a continued attention," and Buffon tells us that "genius is only a
protracted patience."
[Sidenote: Through every clause and part of speech of a right book, I
meet the eyes of the most determined men.--EMERSON.]
Turner, the great landscape painter, when asked how he had achieved
his great success, replied: "I have no secret but hard work. This is a
secret that many never learn, and they do not succeed because they do
not learn it. Labor is the genius that changes the world from ugliness
to beauty."
[Sidenote: All your Greek will never advance you from secretary to
envoy, or from envoy to ambassador; but your address, your air, your
manner, if good, may.--CHESTERFIELD.]
"The man who succeeds above his fellows," says Lord Lytton, "is the
one who early in life clearly discerns his object and toward that
object habitually directs his powers. Even genius itself is but fine
observation strengthened by fixity of purpose. Every man who observes
vigilantly and resolves steadfastly grows unconsciously into genius."
"Am I a genius?"
[Sidenote: 'Tis the mind that makes the body rich.--SHAKESPEARE.]
Now that you have asked the question, why not carefully think it
over and determine what the answer should be? Have you patience and
determination? Are you cultivating the habit of sticking to it?
STICK TO IT
[Sidenote: To read without reflection is like eating without
digesting.--BURKE.]
O prim little postage-stamp, "holding your own"
In a manner so winning and gentle.
That you're "stuck on" your task--(is that slang?)--you will own,
And yet, you're not two-cent-imental.
I have noted with pride that through thick and through thin
You cling to a thing till you do it,
And, whatever your aim, you are certain to win
Because you seem bound to stick to it.
[Sidenote: I learnt that nothing can constitute good breeding that has
not good nature for its foundation.--BULWER.]
Sometimes when I feel just like shirking a task
Or quitting the work I'm pursuing,
I recall your stick-to-it-ive-ness and I ask,
"Would a postage-stamp do as I'm doing?"
Then I turn to whatever my hands are about
And with fortified purpose renew it,
And the end soon encompass, for which I set out,
If, only, like you, I stick to it.
The sages declare that true genius, so called,
Is simply the will to "keep at it."
A "won't-give-up" purpose is never forestalled,
No matter what foes may combat it.
And most of mankind's vaunted progress is made,
O stamp! if the world only knew it,
By noting the wisdom which you have displayed
In sticking adhesively to it.
[Sidenote: To acquire a few tongues, says a French writer, is the
task of a few years; but to be eloquent in one is the labor of a
life.--COLTON.]
Genius has a twin brother whose name is Patience. The one is quite
often mistaken for the other, which is not strange since they resemble
each other so closely their most intimate friends can scarcely tell
them apart. These two brothers usually work together, which enables the
world to tell who and what they are, for whenever either of them is
employed singly and alone he is hardly ever recognized.
[Sidenote: To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance.--BISHOP
TAYLOR.]
One of these brothers plants the tree and the other cares for it until
the fruit is finally matured. The tree which Genius plants would never
amount to much if Patience were to grow tired of watering and caring
for it. There are weeds to be kept down, branches to be pruned, the
soil must be looked after, worms'-nests must be destroyed, and many
things must be done before the fruit is ready to harvest.
[Sidenote: Life is not so short but that there is always room enough
for courtesy.--EMERSON.]
If Patience were to refuse to work at any time the whole undertaking
would prove a failure. But he does not. He performs his plain, simple
duty, day after day, year after year, until, after long waiting,
there is the beautiful fruit at last. It looks very pretty, but it is
not yet quite ripe. Pick it too soon and it will shrivel up and lack
flavor. But Patience has learned to wait until the day and the hour of
perfection is at hand, and lo! there is his great reward!
[Sidenote: A man's own good breeding is the best security against other
people's ill manners.--CHESTERFIELD.]
The people say: "See this wonderful fruit that grew on the tree which
Genius planted!" But Genius, who is wiser than the multitude, says,
"See this wonderful fruit that grew on the tree which Patience tended!"
[Sidenote: Common sense bows to the inevitable and makes use of
it.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.]
Patience and perseverance are the qualities that enable one to work out
his problems in school and his larger problems in the big university
of the busy world.
[Sidenote: Above all things, reverence yourself.--PYTHAGORAS.]
Toil holds all genius as his own,
For in his grasp a strength is hid
To make of polished words or stone
A poem or a pyramid.
It has been very truly said that if we will pick up a grain a day and
add to our heap we shall soon learn by happy experience the power of
littles as applied to intellectual processes and possessions.
[Sidenote: To Adam, Paradise was home; to the good among his
descendants, home is Paradise.--HARE.]
The road to success, says one of the world's philosophers, is not to be
run upon by seven-league boots. Step by step, little by little, bit by
bit; that is the way to wealth, that is the way to wisdom, that is the
way to glory. The man who is most likely to achieve success in life is
the one who when a boy learns to
KEEP PEGGING AWAY
[Sidenote: To give happiness is to deserve happiness.--ROSSEAU.]
Men seldom mount at a single bound
To the ladder's very top;
They must slowly climb it, round by round,
With many a start and stop.
And the winner is sure to be the man
Who labors day by day,
For the world has learned that the safest plan
Is to keep on pegging away.
[Sidenote: Self-respect,--that corner-stone of all virtues.--JOHN
HERSCHEL.]
You have read, of course, about the hare
And the tortoise--the tale is old--
How they ran a race--it counts not where--
And the tortoise won, we're told.
The hare was sure he had time to pause
And to browse about and play,
So the tortoise won the race because
He just kept pegging away.
A little toil and a little rest,
And a little more earned than spent,
Is sure to bring to an honest breast
A blessing of glad content.
And so, though skies may frown or smile,
Be diligent day by day;
Reward shall greet you after while
If you just keep pegging away.
[Sidenote: This, then, is a proof of a well-trained mind, to delight in
what is good, and to be annoyed at the opposite.--CICERO.]
The Chinese tell of one of their countrymen, a student, who,
disheartened by the difficulties in his way, threw down his book in
despair, when, seeing a woman rubbing a crowbar on a stone, he inquired
the reason, and was told that she wanted a needle, and thought she
would rub down the crowbar till she got it small enough. Provoked by
this example of patience to "try again," he resumed his studies, and
became one of the foremost scholars of the empire.
[Sidenote: There never was so much room for the best as there is
to-day.--THAYER.]
After more than ten years of wandering through the unexplored depths
of the primeval forests of America in the study of birds and animals,
Audubon determined to publish the results of his painstaking energy.
He went to Philadelphia with a portfolio of two hundred sheets, filled
with colored delineations of about one thousand birds, drawn life-size.
Being obliged to leave the city before making final arrangements as to
their disposition, he placed his drawings in the warehouse of a friend.
On his return in a few weeks he found to his utter dismay that the
precious fruits of his wanderings had been utterly destroyed by rats.
The shock threw him into a fever of several weeks' duration, but with
returning health his native energy came back, and taking up his gun and
game-bag, his pencils and drawing-book, he went forward to the forests
as gaily as if nothing had happened. He set to work again, pleased with
the thought that he might now make better drawings than he had done
before, and in three years his portfolio was refilled.
[Sidenote: A healthful hunger for a great idea is the beauty and
blessedness of life.--JEAN INGELOW.]
[Sidenote: A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.--LAMB.]
[Sidenote: There is no real life but cheerful life.--ADDISON.]
When Carlyle had finished the first volume of his "French Revolution"
he lent the manuscript to a friend to read. A maid, finding what
she supposed to be a bundle of waste paper on the parlor floor used
it to light the kitchen fire. Without spending any time in uttering
lamentations, the author set to work and triumphantly reproduced the
book in the form in which it now appears.
[Sidenote: A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to
let alone.--THOREAU.]
[Sidenote: There is one thing in this world better than making a
living, and that is making a life.--RUSSELL.]
"How hard I worked at that tremendous shorthand, and all improvement
appertaining to it! I will only add to what I have already written of
perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous
energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to
be the strong point of my character, if it have any strength at all,
that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success." Such is
Charles Dickens's testimony to the value of sticking to it.
[Sidenote: A man must be one of two things; either a reed shaken by the
wind, or a wind to shake the reeds.--HANDFORD.]
One of the clever characters created by the pen of George Horace
Lorimer says: "Life isn't a spurt, but a long, steady climb. You can't
run far up hill without stopping to sit down. Some men do a day's work,
and then spend six lolling around admiring it. They rush at a thing
with a whoop and use up all their wind in that. And when they've rested
and got it back, they whoop again and start off in a new direction."
[Sidenote: There is nothing at all in life except what we put
there.--MADAME SWETCHINE.]
Says the poet, James Whitcomb Riley, "For twenty years I tried to get
into one magazine; back came my manuscripts eternally. I kept on. In
the twentieth year that magazine accepted one of my articles."
[Sidenote: He is, in my opinion, the noblest who has raised himself by
his own merit to a higher station.--CICERO.]
The eminent essayist, William Mathews, tells us: "The restless, uneasy,
discontented spirit which sends a mechanic from the East to the South,
the Rocky Mountains, or California, renders continuous application
anywhere irksome to him, and so he goes wandering about the world, a
half-civilized Arab, getting the confidence of nobody, and almost sure
to die insolvent."
[Sidenote: A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly
read.--MACAULAY.]
The boys who stick to it, and the men who stick to it, are the ones who
achieve results. It does not pay to scatter one's energies. If a man
cannot succeed at one thing he is even less likely to succeed at many
things. Just here would be a good place, I think, to tell how Johnny's
father taught him
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS
[Sidenote: He that can have patience can have what he will.--FRANKLIN.]
One day, in huckleberry-time, when little Johnny Wales
And half-a-dozen other boys were starting with their pails
To gather berries, Johnny's pa, in talking with him, said
That he could tell him how to pick so he'd come out ahead.
"First find your bush," said Johnny's pa, "and then stick to it till
You've picked it clean. Let those go chasing all about who will
In search of better bushes, but it's picking tells, my son;
To look at fifty bushes doesn't count like picking one."
[Sidenote: Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.--PLATO.]
[Sidenote: A man who dares waste an hour of time has not discovered the
value of time.--DARWIN.]
And Johnny did as he was told, and, sure enough, he found
By sticking to his bush while all the others chased around
In search of better picking, it was as his father said;
For while the others looked, he worked, and thus came out ahead.
And Johnny recollected this when he became a man,
And first of all he laid him out a well-determined plan;
So, while the brilliant triflers failed with all their brains and
push,
Wise, steady-going Johnny won by "sticking to his bush."
[Illustration: WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE HAVERHILL MASS.]