110 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



cism and persecution, who have been lifted high above storm and cloud by the 

 faith that inspired them, and who have left names 



'' At whose sight all the stars 

 Hide their diminished heads." 



possessed some general qualities worth our while to note. They were men of 

 genius rather than men of talent. 



Of all the distinctions I have seen drawn between genius and talent, I pre- 

 fer that of De Quincey. In his essay on Keats he thus distinguishes: " Gen- 

 ius is that mode of intellectual power which moves in alliance with the genial 

 nature, that is with the capacities of pleasure and pain, whereas talent has no 

 vestige of such alliance. Genius is the language which interprets the synthesis 

 of the human spirit with the human intellects, each acting through the other, 

 while talent speaks only from the insulated intellect. And hence also, it is that 

 besides its relation to enjoyment and suffering, genius always implies a deeper 

 relation to virtue and vice ; whereas talent has no shadow of a relation to moral 

 qualities, any more than it has to vital sensibilities. A man of the highest talent 

 is often obtuse and below the ordinary standard of men in his feelings ; but no 

 man of genius can unyoke himself from the society of moral perceptions that are 

 brighter and sensibilities that are more tremulous than those of men in general*" 



Another writer condenses the argument in these words: "Nature is the 

 master of talent ; genius is the master of nature." 



I speak now only of the fanatic whose genius allied him to human welfare 

 and ennoblement. Many men have gone singing to the pyre for conscience sake, 

 many have passed into the whelming waves of persecution, obloquy and death 

 for a fanatical iaith ; exile has borne into the snows of Siberia true hearted men 

 who cherished thoughts hostile to despotic sway; and in all ages clans, tribes and 

 whole peoples have suffered the loss of home, substance, and even life, for fidel- 

 ity to beliefs called by their destroyers fanatical — all these, indeed, bear " a good 

 report " amid the voices of history, and their loyalty to conviction remains a 

 range of lighted headlands along the coast of time ; they are a part of that uni- 

 versal teacher we call human experience. But now and then among these un- 

 sung and inconspicuous martyrs there rises a majestic form, an awful presence, 

 which rivets our gaze and concentrates our wonder. He heralds a mighty epoch 

 — he embodies the aspirations of the unknown and nameless multitudes. The 

 sorrows of his dumb and stricken fellows have touched his soul to a tension and 

 exaltation only possible to a few. Of self he has no care ; the planning and plot- 

 ting, the vacillation and deviousness of the man of mere talent governed only by 

 ambition, have no dominion over him. He follows, as only a man of genius 

 can, an ideal immeasurably above his day; he pursues through defeat and shame 

 a bright and, to him, ever alluring hope whose ultimate realization he undoubt- 

 edly cherishes, and whose consummation he devoutly trusts will bring happiness 

 to mankind. 



Back of deeds lie thoughts, and beyond thoughts are feelings, emotions. 



