Show I The Mission of Genius By W. W G. G Roylance THE masses of ot mankind are never in i t- t accord with their leaders In the great procession of humanity the many are f unable to keep pace with the rapid I march of the eager few who lead the theP P 1 advance The desire of the latter is to t press onward to greater achievements r of the former to pillage the already conquered country Genius continually looks beyond the ther thereal thereal r real to the ideal it contrasts what exists with what ought to exist and to itself realizes the ideal marking out the way i to its realization by the masses Standing Standing Standing Stand Stand- ing on the mystic borderland between the known and the unknown it points out to the reluctant world the road to f the receding ever-receding perfect and beckons onward Well has the greatest of living living living liv liv- ing English essayists said that the world never pays its best workers People pay for or being amused and cheated not for being served It almost seems that humanity at large does not want to go goon goon goon on to that which is higher and nobler and better like better like those savages who live on in their filthy huts disdaining the clear comfortable cottages built for them by their would-be would benefactors Not only is t the e highest and m most st useful work that which broadens human life and discloses to man his true self with all its possibilities not paid for but it itis itis itis is almost invariably discouraged II What did Homer get for his Illiad or Dante for his Paradise only bitter bread and salt and going up and down other peoples people's stairs In science the theman theman theman man who discovered the telescope and first saw heaven was paid with a dUDgeon dungeon dungeon dun dUD geon the man who invented the microscope microscope microscope micro micro- scope and first saw earth died of starvation starvation starvation star star- driven from his home It is the misfortune of genius to be always misunderstood this is in the very nature of genius since it has to do with the ideal and imperfectly known It must find its reward in the very striving after its ideal good for when attained the whole world claims it and genius again L reaches out into the unknown Who are the leaders of human progress progress progress pro pro- gress if they are not the army of enthusiastic enthusiastic enthusiastic reformers and cranks who are constantly at war with existing institutions institutions institutions He who would most benefit mankind mankind mankind man man- kind must forego its praises at least during his lifetime Yet at the same time he must keep in perfect sympathy with his men fellow-men for only thus can he estimate human needs and form his ideal He must love those that hate him and pray for those who spitefully use him and all this will he do who is inspired with the Divine spark of genius This inestimable gift is not for himself alone he who can think so does not possess it This then is the mission of genius To penetrate all mysteries to scale all heights and to sound all depths To bring within the reach of mankind all that can conduce to human welfare to create ideals and to realize them to point out to man his true self his true destiny to bridge over the immense gulf between the realized imperfect and the unrealized perfect And for all this it must find its reward not in the plaudits of those whom it benefits but in the performance of the acts themselves The truly inspired man is humble and well knows that his power is not because of any special deserving of his own but that it is a portion of the universal Divine manifesting itself through him He does not do these things because he feels it a duty or because he expects any reward but because he is ably impelled to do them He is a power for good good he he knows not why and his life is self What matters it to him though envy and malice revile or scorn and hatred wag their envenomed tongues tongues absorbed absorbed in his aim all these are less to him than the murmur of the passing wind It is well for humanity that genius exists the exists the power that reaches out from the real to the ideal and identifies them the power that transcends transcends transcends trans trans- the hard and fast lines of established established established truth and restlessly active continually breaks down old barriers even pushing the horizon of the known farther and farther into the land of the unknown It is well too perhaps that humanity is not more appreciative of genius since its is compelled to find his happiness and his activity in inthe inthe r the search after the ideal And the they who thus search well know that II not not in war not in wealth not in tyranny is there any happiness to be found for them them only only in kindly peace fruitful and free The peace that comes from the complete realization of the self and all its powers and the sharing of those powers and their results with all man man- kind the peace that comes from the realization that all mankind is a unity through the holy bond of sympathy and that genius itself in its full perfection perfection perfection tion and sublimity is universal and is only a manifestation of this sympathy |