QUALITY OF "GREATNESS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

QUALITY OF "GREATNESS."

i DISTINCT FROM GENIUS. An attempt to-define" greatness, "with particular, reference -to literary l men," is made .by. a'. writer in " T.'P'.V. Weekly"Genius;" he, says, "is not' greatness. Rudvard Kipling is ; a genius, . for-his name stands for an idea, the glory'of'the things thit: are, .and the' -dream{pf -a 'noble.'Empire.'. Oscar Wilde was-a genius,' for was he not expression, incarnate Strauss' is a genius, for it, there a pang or' an emotion that does, not cry. out from ,his orchestra? From the sensuality of Salome to -the . nobility of Orestes, all ; is known to us through him. Stephenson and Watt gave, a new: impetus to steam traction. Madame Curie gave us radium, and Marcdhi,' like, a /.wizard, 6ped 'ideas winded through' the air. But is it'upon our knees that we • approach them? . Not for • a moment 'do ■ I suggest that either their lives or: their aims leave anything to. be desired. Each in his or" her way has laid at the' feet -of the world the fruit of .the tree: " And. so-the philosophers and' poets from' Homer and Whitman, from Plato to Emerson, from Aristotle-to Nietzsche move in an august : procession, heartening or frightening, bracing or teaching the generations. We take off our hats,, but we do not kneel. The standard that our souls set is a high one. Perhaps one forgets nowadays what a wealth of prowess, of suffering, • or; of genius one needs..in order to. wring -from humanity the cry He is a Prophet ■ . > >

•, "Perhaps'one must.be at war with the world ' to. • reach- that standard. Had Isaiah been popular, had Pilate, been a man cjf courage, had no coward been found to * hand' the hemlock to Socrates, would not a world's history- have * been chaffged?'' 'There 'lies 'the m xlern danger. When'anyone, is reviled look warily, for here, may "he theYman of. woman for whom the. world waits. * This is' the ;more ;needful jnr ah'age like this,'' when-the press and ' 'film ,can" Haines -and spread ideas* which .seldom; receive any-test at all. ' To'be at- war 'with 1 existing-things always 'has . been .the "Sign >. of.' greatness? Thought only, one 'Soldier ur'-a- ihousandSis a hero. J '~.*,'■*'".*':'"", •■'-'• .' '*'•• ' •'?,'', : r,"The truth,,-is, that., greatness 1 is inOre rare than. we think. 'I. would'deny-,it v not only to Sir J.' "IJE- Barrie' but to every living and nearly .every dead writer. -.V.oi greatness neither i's of a man nor 'an'event,. It comes like Tragedy, from causes beyond'

our ken, v from a, world where dark'and wayward, strands ..of thought, are. woven together. Lincoln was. great because he lived' by the labour of his hands, expressed his thoughts with' vigour and rigntneas, and guafded his inner life. He was great because the soul within him ' bound ;a 1 people to him, because principle was more than power. 'And further, "principle triumphed and he was" exalted through* an ideal. But most of all was he great because a\ the end he came to his Calvary unstained, and was made immortal by the very hand that struck him. America, the world, and God were glorified in a full .and complete life. His labour was worthy, his speeches have the ring of literature. He was a. father, a husband, a national prophet. '. Shakespere , lived fully and wrote as never Lincoln could. Joan of Arc did deeds for France such as no Shakespere could do for England. She, too, found her Judas, her Pilate, and her Calvary. Yet she died as she lived, the Maid. And behind, the light of the World upon the Altar of life stands the Madonna. . "Greatness is not a quality, but a pil- - from the 'cradle 'to the grave. .The measure of it is the limit 'of our highest thoughts. . A few weeks ago in . Jersey City a baby was judged in a competition to be ' 100 per cent, perfect.' It was the child of parents physically, mentally and morally deficient. Imagine, then, that ■ such a child should grow up well and 6trong, and eventually earn its < own living. Then by popular choice the man becomes a power," perhaps the head of the state., There then comes a huge moral issue, . such as slavery in the case of Lincoln. He take« -his stand regardless of popular opinion and wins. Then, having striven in company with the bast men j and women of his age for- the fullest life ] arid: freedom for all, the powers of evil | strike . him ■ down, • and he becomes im- | mortal. There ,one- has an example of-I .greatness, which focuses'a-nation and a man, anil sets a, standard for ever against ' which all human' effort henceforth can be i measured us upon a .yard-stick. '. What, then, of. the niceties of pen and pencil, of ! brush* of . laboratory,. of orchestra? Let' us ,not despise them. . But when the word '.■great' is used, let us be silent a moment, for'we may hear, not the ' beating of the v.ings '.. of ; the Angel of. Death, but a .far echo of Humanity's undersong,. the refrain, to which the -globes..swing, through space, and to Eternity." -~.' • --.. '. , • >