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Show Genius Not Form of High Mental Capacity? The dullest and most valuable of books says the word genius means special mental endowments. I have been wondering If anyone with the special imagination necessary neces-sary in considering the spiritual is a genius. May it be honestly said of Edgar Allen Poe. or Walt Whitman, that they were geniuses? There is nothing of actual value in a morbid poem, play or picture, although they may be unusual. The Ideas In them cannot be worked out to a legitimate conclusion, and a legitimate conclusion conclu-sion Is the first safe and Intelligent base In life. Sir Oliver Lodge, Dean Inge, many others, spend their lives thinking queer things, but they must themselves them-selves know their propositions will not work out. having tried them repeatedly. re-peatedly. I believe genius Is confined con-fined to thoe who accept the well-attested well-attested facts of life, and make the host of them, kindly, courageously, and with reasonable success. E. W Howe's Monthly. |