PERFECT AND IMPERFECT GENIUS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2585, 20 April 1877, Page 3

PERFECT AND IMPERFECT GENIUS.

Whereas it is of the essence of real genius to conform to nature, detect undiscovered beauties in the commonest objects of sight, and. make

"Wonders familiar start In its decisive light;"

its counterfeit aims at overstepping nature, making the unfamiliar common,:and creating monsters. . These novelties have often the prima facie semblance of creation, but under careful" analysis will usually yield up the device of their manufacture, and suggest their sources of derivation. By fertillity we understand, an abounding fruitfulness of idea by no means identical With and not necessarily,. involving more productiveness of work., Exhaustless variety and versatility of invention, as opposed to mannerism and: repetition of well-worn themes, will sufficiently express the characteristic hereby: intended. By equability we mean fulness and maintenance of power, which is consistent with gradation and growth from crudity to ma : turity, but, when that standard is reached, varies in its manifestation only within narrow limits ; the reverse of a fitful inequality which oscillates betweeu the extreme of sublihiity and the extreme of meanness." Macaulay has noted in a •fragment of criticism two instances in ,which this characteristic is displayed. Speaking of Schiller's "Don Carlos, 1' he says /that it is the turning point of his artistic power, as "Eomeo and Juliet" is of Shakespeare's. "After ' Romeo and Juliet' Shakespeare never went back, nor did Schiller after 'Carlos.'" No such turning point is discoverable in the work ofimperfect genius.; Coherence and articulateness are well-nigh inseparable, and answer in effect to the perfection of theory, and practice. In a mind that is complete and self-consistent, ideas have a systematic interdependence. or mutual relevance. The artist's aim being to clear himself, his utterance is so distinct as to make it clear to others. Now and : then, owing either to a momentary lapse of power, or an accidental defect in the instrument of transmission, details of his meaning may be left obscure ;but in every work ofc his hand, regarded as a whole, the purpose is unmistakable" and the language intelligible.—Contemporary Review.

A Bit oe ADviCE.-7-Neyer make a "pjor mouth," but if your.are wise you will always affect independence, though you may indeed be as,poor as- Job's turkey. If you are poori don't, let folks know it, or they will discover in you a thousand blemishes—a host of defects whichwouldnever.be discovered, or at least never talked about, if you; kept a stiff upper lip, and carried yourself as if you had,ten thousand dollars, instead of but ten cents at your command. It is as natural for the world to hold poor folks in contempt as it is for rats to steal cheesei