a
specialty of art the less he gets from all teachers save those in his
own field of interest. It seems also true that the wider a human
being's range of dealing with other human beings in business, in
politics, in religious organizations, in educational work, the surer
it will be that "all is grist that comes to his mill" and there can be
no study that is at all worthy that fails to enrich his mind. Hence,
the new tendency to examination for the sake of finding out the
specially gifted children and giving them the special opportunity in
education which they need and will profit by, must be one guided
toward details of differing gifts as well as toward quantitative
power.

=Genius Universal in Nature.=--If any family has in it a real genius,
that family shines forever in the reflected light of its choicest
treasure. Yet a genius belongs to no family, even to no country. Such
belong to the world. Mary, we are told, "pondered the things in her
heart" which marked the boy Jesus out from all the other lads who
played about the carpenter shop of Joseph. And it is not alone poetic
imagination that shows her as troubled as well as humbly proud at the
testimonies of His coming greatness. Many other mothers of those
destined to high achievement have had misgivings as the shadow as
truly as the sunlight of that greatness passed across their vision.
For true greatness is solitary and often dedicated to tragedies of
experience. The family life may be the only refuge from a
misunderstanding world while the hero lives and only after death may
the high quality of his service be known to all.

=Genius Its Own School-master.=--The most comforting thought to
parents who have children "different" and perhaps different in ways
not yet appreciated by the world around them, is this: nature, which
takes care that we shall not have too many geniuses and doubtless will
still take such care when we grow wise enough to give all the children
a chance to prove whether or not they are geniuses--nature sees to it
that the most gifted among the children of men carry within themselves
their own school-master. If the regular lines of education do not suit
their needs they promptly emancipate themselves from the useless
pedagogy, and going after what they personally demand for inner
nourishment, get it at all hazards. Sometimes, not infrequently, all
the gifted child needs is a library and a chance to be free, or a
studio and the companionship of an