Genius and Work | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 7, 1877

Genius and Work.

Genius counts for much, but work for more. Genius ofttimes accomplishes brilliant results, but the great lever of social progress and individual success is work. The old story of the hare and the tortoise is familiar to every one, and to all it should be something more than mere fable. It should act at once as a curb and an incentive. It should curb the impatience of work and flightiness so often characteristic of the genius gifted, and encourage the less highly endowed to a steady perseverance in using means which will certainly place them along side of if not in advance of their brilliant fellows. Nothing is more common than to find genius going up like a rocket, and coming down suddenly and swiftly like a stick, and simply for the want of application.

It may be a youth at school, who, finding himself quicker of apprehension than his companions, forthwith becomes possessed with the notion that he can neglect study for play, and fetch up in a few days the neglect of weeks. Or it may be the man of business, who depends on occasional brilliant speculations rather than upon careful attention to the details of every-day transactions. It may be a lawyer whose reliance is upon his native powers of oratory rather than upon a knowledge of law acquired by diligent study. Perhaps it is an artist, who, having a natural aptitude for drawing, and an eye for color, has given evidence of the possession of the true artistic talent, and therefore imagines that the drudgery incident to art may be overleaped by him. But one and all, school-boy, business man, lawyer, artist, or whatever be their position in life, find possibly all too late to retrieve their error, how fatal has been their mistake. The school-boy discovers that his superficial brilliancy avails nothing against the solid acquirements of the patient toiler in search of knowledge; the business man's dashing speculations fail, and he is involved in ruin, while his slower and more careful competitor passes on to sure wealth; the artist's ignorance of his art ceases to be condoned by his genius and his disappointment is more bitter by observing his less talented but hard-working rival winning fame and fortune, while the lawyer's inattention to his law-books has led him into so many blunders that clients no longer entrust their interests to such incompetent hands.

Industry intelligently directed always makes its mark. Possibly it may not bring the laborer high position or wealth; but seldom does the person who makes diligent and conscientious use of the powers given him, and the opportunities vouched him, fail of measurable success, and never of securing the respect and esteem of all whose regard is worth having, nor of the contentment which flows from honestly discharged duty. Genius, allied with industry, is productive of the highest results; but the combination is, and necessarily must be, rare. Few are gifted with genius, but all can work, and there is scarcely a limit to that which perseverance may achieve. Let, then, none despair of success. In whatever direction they feel themselves best fitted to labor, let them work honestly and intelligently, with the full assurance that though it may be slow in coming their reward is certain.

How fast time flies, when you are working to fill it up! What a difference between trying to get your work done before your dinner hour, and trying to fill up your hour before dinner without work.—Sel.