Whilst we believe that education is the greatest gift that can be
conferred on a human creature, we are not sanguine enough to expect that
its more general diffusion will increase the number of men of genius.
There is a perversity in human nature which makes us relax our efforts
at the moment when they might be rewarded with the most splendid
success. It does not follow that a shepherd-boy, who passes his long day
on the side of a hill, and who acquires the principles of mechanics, or
forms for himself a plan of the stars, shall make proportionate
advancement if full opportunity of study be afforded to him.
Nor does it follow that a young man who teaches himself to read by the
light of a shop window in the street, shall become a learned man when
admitted to libraries and encouraged by applause.
We do not think the illustration a correct one, which represents the
scholar as like the weary traveller who plods on contentedly through
woods and over irregular ground which conceal the prospect, and who
faints when he has ascended to the top of the hill and sees the whole
extent of the road before him.
The truth seems rather to be, that energy of mind, like strength of
body, must be acquired by exercise, and that the consciousness of desert
in encountering difficulties, must be felt to enable us to accomplish
any great work. Sir Joshua Reynolds has happily expressed this:--
“It is not uncommon to see young artists, whilst they are struggling
with every obstacle in their way, exert themselves with such success as
to outstrip competitors possessed of every means of improvement. The
promising expectation which was formed on so much being done with so
little means, has recommended them to a patron, who has supplied them
with every convenience of study; from that time their industry and
eagerness of pursuit have forsaken them; they stand still and see others
rush on before them.
“Such men are like certain animals, who will feed only where there is
little provender, and that got at with difficulty through the bars of a
rack, but refuse to touch it where there is an abundance before
them[2].”
From this it appears to be essential to success that a young man should
study to acquire confidence in his own powers. This is a condition of
mind entirely different from conceit; it exhibits itself in no vain
boasting, but essentially consists in a secret resolution to make great
efforts by persevering industry, to gain the object of his ambition.
We believe that young men would entertain these notions oftener, if they
were not deterred by an erroneous fancy of what belongs to genius. They
think that such exertions as we recommend belong only to a plodding
fellow, whilst the man of genius does every thing by a sudden act which
costs him nothing.
This is an unhappy mistake. All our eminent men have been distinguished
by fixing upon some great object, and possessing themselves with such a
lively conception of it that it has led them on through years of toil.
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Footnote 2:
Sir J. Reynolds’ Works, vol. ii. p. 80.
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