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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. COMPARISON OF THE TWO CLASSIFICATIONS. Is reputation a fair test of natural ability ? It is the only one I can employ?am I justified in using it-? How much of a man's success is due to his opportunities, how much to his natural power of intellect ? This is a very old question, on which a great many commonplaces have been uttered that need not be repeated here. I will confine myself to a few considerations, such as seem to me amply adequate to prove, what is wanted for my argument. Let it clearly be borne in mind, what I mean by reputation and ability. By reputation, I mean the opinion of contemporaries, revisedjjvjposterity?the favourable result ' of a critical analysis of each man's character, by many / biographers, I do not mean high social or official position, nor such as is implied by being the mere lion of a London season; but I 'speak of the reputation of a leader of opinion, of an originator, of a man to whom the world / deliberately acknowledges itself largely indebted. By natural ability, I mean those qualities of intellect and disposition, which urge and qualify a man to perform acts that lead to reputation. I' do not mean capacity without zeal, nor zeal without capacity, nor even a combination of both of them, without an adequate power of doing a great deal of very laborious work. But I mean a nature which, when left to itself, will, urged by an inherent stimulus, climb the path that leads to eminence, and has strength to reach the summit?one which, if hindered or thwarted, will fret and strive until the hindrance is overcome, and it is again free to follow its labour-loving instinct. It is almost a contradiction in terms, to doubt that such men will generally become eminent. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence in this volume, ...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217483254 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217483259 |
| Weight | 0.99 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.68 In |
| List Price | $20.59 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 302 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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