Genius, Talent, Industry.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1818, 1 March 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

Genius, Talent, Industry.

( T\llnx" is a quality which enables its oosscsaor to acquire knowledge by learning irom others and by unassisted study. " Genius," oa the other hand, is characterised by a great independence of instruction ; it takes its own course, and originates new ideas and inventions never thought of before. It may of course enlarge its sphere of '.nowledge by reading, by observation, and by ; but if- is by no means characteristic of genius to be apt to be taught ; on the contrary, embryo geniuses are often dull fellows at school and idle to boot. It rather di "likes to follow in the track of others, and uses .superior to obstacles of ciicumstances and deficiencies of education. Genius may safely be left to hew a path for itself. Talent is greedy of instruction. Hence the two have very different relations to education, a subject upon which I should much like to dilate, but the length into which I have been unintentionally betrayed warns me to avoid the temptation. Arkwright i>eifected his invention of the spinning frame in the uncongenial atmosphere ot a barber's shop, in the teeth of a scolding .vife who more than once broke up his models on the eve of completion, and who habitually upbraided him for neglecting the profitable occupation of " an easy shave for a penny," with the elegant apostrophe, " Cuss the 'cheenery 1 " I believe she lived to be Lady Vrkwngbl. Let us hope that she learal to moderate the rancor of her tongue. George Stephenson, inventor of the locomotive and the father of railways, devoted his extraoidinary engineering genius in the obscurity, physical and metaphorial, of a coal pit; eking out his slender eainings by mendin;; the boots of his fellow workmen and occasionally a watch or clock. Sir Humphry Davy, ■who was discribed as an " idle and incorrigible schoolboy," waa apprenticed to an obscure apothecary in Penzance; he afterwards became assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Beddoes, of the Hotwells, Bristol, well known to my father, who was then serving his apprenticeship at the name place, but I cannot discover that he knew anything of the Doctor's more illustrious subordinate. Faraday's father was a Yorkshire blacksmith, who migrated to London, presumably in search of work, and Faraday himself waa apprenticed to a bookbinder. A chance at* tendance upon four lectures by Sir Humphry Davy was the immediate cause of his directing his attention to science, and he was some time after introduced to the Laboratory of the Boyal Institution through Davy's instrumentality. Benjamin Franklin made his first entry into Philadelphia, a poor lad, with all his possessions upon his back, and a dollar in his pocket. As Mark Twain deprecatingly remarks "Anybody might have clone that ; the only difficulty is to have the dollar." But how few out of the millions who have begun life with a dollar, or even with lesi., have arrived to be Franklins? On the other hand, it seems absolutely immaterial with what seemingly insuperable disadvantages genius may be oppressed ; it will make its way to the surf ace and triumph over all. Can industry then supply the place of genius? Empathically, No 1 InclvMy may compensate for paucity of talent ; for talent, as we have said, is a common heritage, and its presence or absence is a matter of degree, and whatever results are attributed to talent are the joint product of talent multiplied by industry. " Genius " is aa a living organism, instinct with its own life, performing its appointed functions spontaneously, as of necessity. " Talent ' is an elaborate engine, skilfully devised to move many [wheels and to perform drivers work, but wanting the motive power. " Industry " is the motive power. — R. W. Giles.

In a lecent publication we find, under the title of "Joaquin Miller," the following brief parody of that barbarian bard's inhuman style; I said to myself as the world turned round, Turned over and over like a man in bed : I will git up and git, I will leave the ground, I'll lift myself up by the hair of my head, By the marvellous hair of my head, or the strength Of a song that's as strong and of greater length. Yea out of my boots like a sky-rocket ; yea, Up out of the Sun-land I'll shoot as I sing ; And then I will kiss my strong hand to the And d^^o|||i^scin;a drinking gin sling, Till Europ«p|f|itoaer me, then in the nick Of time I^lM^ffl^ngand drop like & stick.