GENIUS WILL HAVE ITS WAY. 53 sometimes err on the side of partiality, and over-estimate the abilities of their sons, and that youth itself, as we have hinted, is prone to this flattering exaggeration. It is true—for moralists are never weary of telling us so—that Liston, who convulsed audiences by the richness of his drollery, was convinced that he was born to play "Macbeth;" that David, the artist of Revolutionary France, could never be persuaded that his proper profession was not the diplomatic. These delusions must be accepted as warnings to exercise the greatest discretion in judging of the character, temperament, and faculties of the young before we seek to determine them in the selection of a career. And this discretion is all the more needful because it is certain that each of us has his suitable groove, if he can but find it. Lamentable wrecks of goodly barks would be avoided if they were properly trimmed at the outset, and steered with a trustworthy compass. It is the duty of the parent, the guardian, the instructor, to study carefully the proclivities of those committed to their charge, to search for the latent force, and watch and wait for the indications of nature. The elder Caxton, while superintending his son's education, recalls how he has read in a certain Greek writer of the foolish experimentalist who, to save his bees a laborious flight to fragrant Hymettus, cut their wings, and then set before them the finest flowers and fullest of nectared sweets he could collect. Alas! he soon discovered to his cost that the bees made no honey! Applying the illustration, Caxton determines that his young Pisistratus shall be restricted to no narrow sphere limited by parental anxiety, but allowed to range over fresh woods and pastures new for his own materials. It is generally found that in men of great genius the "natural instinct" is so strong as to defy all efforts to repress it. In their early years its spell is upon them, invincible and irresistible as that of the enchanter in the "Orlando Furioso." Their thoughts and dreams are occupied by its influence, which, like the ghost of Miltiades in the case of the Athenian statesman, or the spirit of Hamlet's father, will not let them rest. The impulse cannot be denied. Shakespeare struggles with his thoughts until he composes "Hamlet;" Beethoven is driven onward until he creates the "Sinfonia Eroica." Genius chooses its channel of expression with no desire for wealth, or fame, or happiness; but because it cannot do otherwise, just as 54 BEWARE OF ROLLING STONES. the nightingale sings because its heart is in its music. The poet and the painter and the musician love their art, and give up their souls to it with unquestioning surrender. Aims in life! Genius has only one; to find an outlet in the way best adapted for it. It may be enslaved for a while"cribbed, cabined, and confined" by unpropitious circumstances; but sooner or later it will burst its bonds, and ply its wings in the free, open air. The time comes at last when it will no longer consent "to harrow the valleys, or be bound with the band in the furrow;" when "it laughs at the multitude of the city, and regards not the crying of the driver;" when, refusing any longer to pour water into sieves or weave ropes out of sand, it designs a Madonna," carves an Apollo," or writes a "Divina Commedia." How was it that Hogarth and Correggio, to name two masters of very opposite genius, succeeded in attaining that high standard of excellence which the world now recognises admiringly? What was their inspiration? Not a mother's approving smile, nor a father's frown; not the help of teachers, nor the world's premature applause; but the vivid, tingling delight with which the one seized upon a grotesque incident or character, the rapt soul shining in the eyes of the other as he raised a saint to, or drew an angel from, the skies. 66 To these remarks upon the conditions which the young should bear in mind when debating their "aims in life," we may add a couple of warnings. First, we would say, having once selected your profession or calling, do not be in a hurry to change it. "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Because it is at first distasteful, do not hurriedly conclude that you are in the wrong place; that your "genius" (heaven save the mark!) has not discovered its appropriate sphere; that you are not rightly appreciated, but that in some other pursuit you would assuredly rise to fame and fortune. Be humble and be patient. We cannot all of us mount Pegasus, and the modest hackney is at best a safer steed. Our young men seem to share in the general unrest of the age, and shift uneasily from one pursuit to another, with the result of succeeding in none. They would do well to imitate Sydney Smith, who, as a parish priest at Foston-leClay, in Yorkshire, felt that he was inappropriately situated, but cheerfully persevered in his resolve to do justice to his work. "I am determined," he said, "to like it, and reconcile myself HONOUR YOUR WORK. 55 to it, which is more manly than to feign myself above it, and to send up complaints by the post of being thrown away and being desolate, and such like trash." Macready appears to have detested his profession as an actor as strongly as did Shakespeare; but he laboured in it with persistent industry, and after years of discouragement rose to the highest position on the English stage. It is well, then, to be careful in the choice of the road we travel; but it is better, when once the choice has been made, to adhere to it contentedly. "Going back" is almost always a losing game, and much that is possible to men of genius is impracticable or dangerous to men of ordinary ability. Our second caution is, whatever your calling, do not despise it. If it be humble, elevate it by the honesty and excellence with which you discharge its duties. As we have already hinted, there is no discredit in being a shoemaker, but there is in making a bad shoe. The scorn with which some young men speak of the work to which they have been called springs too often from a wretched vanity. Their great souls are humiliated by being required to labour like their neighbours. But if a man cannot be a Guido, he can at least learn to mix colours thoroughly; and it is more praiseworthy to "engross a deed" with careful accuracy than to write bad verses. It is not the labour that dignifies the man, but the man who dignifies the labour. Of nothing is the world more contemptuous than of the silly affectation that is ashamed of its position in society or business. Of nothing is the world more tender than of the honest pride which seeks only to do its duty. It reserves its deepest reverence for such men as George Wilson, who could say, "The word DUTY seems to me the biggest word in the world, and is uppermost in all my serious doings." It echoes and approves the poet's saying, "The path of duty is the way to glory" : "He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden CHAPTER III. A STEADY PURPOSE. "Be not simply good; be good for something."-Thoreau. "Rich are the diligent, who can command Time, nature's stock, and, could his hour-glass fall, -Sir William Davenant. "We are but farmers of ourselves; yet may, -Dr. Donne. "We should guard against a talent which we cannot hope to practise in perfection. Improve it as we may, we shall always, in the end, when the merit of the matter has become apparent to us, painfully lament the loss of time and strength devoted to such botchery."-Goethe. "Do what thou dost as if the earth were heaven, -Charles Kingsley. "When I take the humour of a thing once, I am like your tailor's needle, I go through."-Ben Jonson. |