Fifty Geniuses

by

Lawrence E. Rogers

Introduction

The purpose of these 50 one-page descriptions of persons of genius is to remind readers of historical persons who are worth knowing better.

Each of these fifty geniuses is the subject of many scholarly books that are readily available in our wonderful public libraries.

Persons of Genius

Date of Birth

1 Moses       13th century B.C.

2 King Solomon   10th century B.C.

3 Homer 8th  century B.C.

4 Confucius    6th  century B.C.

5 Socrates                  470 B.C.

6 Hippocrates            460 B.C.

7 Plato                429 B.C.

8 Aristotle           384 B.C.

9 Cicero             106 B.C.

10Virgil               70  B.C.

11Seneca              4  B.C.

12Justinian       483 A.D.

13Charlemagne       742 A.D.

14Alfred the Great  849 A.D.

15Louis IX            1214 A.D.

16Dante               1265 A.D.

17Chaucer            1345 A.D.

18Gutenberg         1397 A.D.

19Joan of Arc       1412 A.D.

20Columbus          1451 A.D.

21Leonardo da Vinci    1452 A.D.

22Copernicus        1473 A.D.

23Michelangelo     1475 A.D.

24Thomas More           1478 A.D.

25Galileo       1564 A.D.

26Shakespeare     1564 A.D.

27Pascal       1623 A.D.

28Dryden      1668 A.D.

29Alexander Pope        1688 A.D.

30Samuel Johnson        1709 A.D.

31Rochambeau     1725 A.D.

32Edmund Burke          1729 A.D.

33Joseph Haydn           1732 A.D.

34James Madison         1750 A.D.

35Jane Austen       1775 A.D.

36Daniel O’Connell      1775 A.D.

37DeTocqueville   1805 A.D.

38Abraham Lincoln      1809 A.D.

39Charles Dickens        1812 A.D.

40Dostoyevsky     1821 A.D.

41Pasteur      1822 A.D.

42Mendel             1822 A.D.

43Lister         1827 A.D.

44William Osler    1849 A.D.

45Robert L. Stevenson 1850 A.D.

46Toscanini           1867 A.D.

47Montessori        1870 A.D.

48Theresa Martin         1873 A.D.

49Fleming             1881 A.D.

50J.R.R. Tolkien   1891 A.D.

“The mighty minds of old;

  My never-failing friends are they,

  With whom I converse day by day.”

Robert Southey

Moses

One of the most awe-inspiring persons in history is Moses who lived in the 13th  century, B.C.  He was a teacher, a prophet, a leader of his people, and a messenger of God.

At the time of his birth, the life of Moses was in danger because the Pharaoh had ordered the killing of newborn Hebrew males in order to limit the growth of the Hebrew population. 

Moses was hidden by his mother in a reed basket placed at the edge of the Nile River.  He was found by a daughter of the Pharaoh, and he was reared as a prince until the age of about twenty.  A crisis occurred when he was identified as a Jew.  He had to flee from Egypt.

The humanity of Moses was made evident by his reluctance to accept the dangerous assignment as God’s messenger to the Pharaoh.  At first, Moses refused saying, “Why me?”

From the time of his return to Egypt, the life of Moses was marked by one courageous act after another.  His struggle with the Pharaoh  is one of the  great dramas of history.

The second assignment of Moses was as a messenger of God to carry to the people the Ten Commandments.

Moses never reached the promised land.  His death and burial are events that remain as mysteries to the present time.

When Moses had his first encounter with God, Moses asked about God’s name.  God identified Himself as Yahweh which means He Who Creates.  This revelation made Moses recognize the God of the Hebrews as the sovereign lord over the entire world.

Solomon

Many persons of genius are to be found in the Old Testament of the Bible.  One is King Solomon.  The date of his birth is unknown, but his date of death is 922 B.C.

The Italian poet, Dante, praised Solomon for asking God for the knowledge and wisdom to be a good ruler rather than asking for riches or for a long life for himself.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante wrote:

“How, then was Solomon without a peer?

Would be the question thou wouldst put to me.

But so thou mayst see clear what now is dark,

Consider who he was, and what impelled him

To make his just request, when God said: ‘Ask!’

My words have been so clear that thou canst see

He was a king who asked for greater wisdom

In order to become a worthy king.”

Solomon is renowned as the greatest of the kings of Israel.  Under Solomon, the nation enjoyed security and prosperity.

The building of the famous temple in Jerusalem was one of Solomon’s achievements.  The site of this temple is the central shrine from Judaism.

Wise teaching of Solomon is to be found in the Book of Proverbs.  He is credited with the composition of one thousand songs as well as the biblical Song of Solomon.

A story has been told over and over through the centuries of Solomon’s strategy in identifying the true, loving mother of an infant when another woman insisted that she was the baby’s mother.

Since the time of Solomon, political leaders have been aware that wisdom is supposed to govern their official actions.

Homer

We know very little about the Greek poet, Homer, and yet we recognize his genius in his writing.  He produced two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Homer probably composed these poems about 750 B.C.  His term for a poet was “a singer.”  The poems were composed and recited before written literature was developed.

The Iliad consists of 15,693 hexameter lines: the Odyssey consists of 12,110 hexameter lines.

Are you repelled by the violence found in these poems?  The Iliad tells of a nine year siege and conquest of the city of Troy; the Odyssey tells of the fantastic adventures of Odysseus in returning home to his wife and son after the end of the Trojan War.

Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, is the central character of the Iliad; and Odysseus, a more resourceful warrior, is the central character of the Odyssey.  The Iliad is the more important of the two poems.

Scholarly persons today throughout the world continue to study these epic poems just as other scholars in all of the centuries of history had studied them.  These poems are part of the legacy of mankind.

Confucius

We can learn much about the culture of China by reading about the genius, Confucius, who lived for about seventy-three years from about 551 B.C. to 479 B.C.

Many today think that Confucius was a religious leader, but he was primarily an educator.  He is reputed to be the greatest teacher in China in antiquity.

As a young person, he applied himself to scholarly work and he acquired an immense knowledge of Chinese history, Chinese rituals, ethics, language, and administration of governmental affairs.

At about the age of thirty, he set himself up as a private teacher.  Over his lifetime, about three thousand persons studied directly under his guidance.  His pupils rose to positions of importance throughout China.

His advice to students was to cultivate their intellects and strengthen their character.  Moral improvement was at the heart of his teaching.

Confucius taught love of humanity and service to fellow creatures.  First we should fulfill our duties to our family.  Next we should cultivate friends.  He said that each person has the capacity and the necessary willpower to become a person of good character.  Ability and moral excellence were qualities needed for a person to be a good leader.

Socrates

The oracle at Delphi identified Socrates as the wisest man in Greece.  This genius lived in Athens from 470 B.C. to 399 B.C.

If Socrates were alive at the present time, there would be many people who would love him and many others who would hate him.  This is exactly what occurred during his lifetime.

People hated him because he caused them to look closely at their ideas and their behavior.  Many persons were made to see their illogical ways of thinking and behaving.

Young persons found the ideas of Socrates to be stimulating.   They were helped to think clearly about important issues in their lives, especially issues relating to ethics and politics.  Enemies of Socrates brought formal charges against Socrates of corrupting youths.  He was found guilty by a jury and he was sentenced to death.

Socrates rejected an opportunity to escape saying that he regarded obedience to the law as a duty.  Furthermore, he said that he believed that after death, he would enter upon a new life.

The teaching method of Socrates is still being followed by many educators.  He asked question after question to force his students to think of logical answers.  This cross examination procedure guided students to discoveries of truths.

The fact that good appearance is not essential to the acquisition of many friends is shown in the life of Socrates.  He had an ugly appearance with a large, square, bald head, prominent eyes, broad nostrils, and a wide mouth.

Hippocrates

The man traditionally regarded as the Father of Medicine is the Greek physician, Hippocrates.  His date of birth was about 460 B.C. and his date of death about 377 B.C.

He is said to have written seventy works on medicine.  Sixty of these writings are still extant.

The Hippocratic Oath is attributed to him.  This oath has served as a guide for the behavior of the medical professionals through the centuries.  The Oath is currently used in the graduation exercises of many medical schools.  The Oath reads in parts as follows:

“I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment the following oath: I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients … and never do harm to anyone … I will preserve the purity of my life and my art …”

Physicians are practitioners of modern science who enter into the intimate aspects of the lives of their patients.  Hippocrates advised doctors to keep confidential the secrets revealed to them in their daily work.

Widely followed today is this advice given by Hippocrates:

“All parts of the body which have a function if used in moderation and exercised … become thereby healthy, well-developed, and age more slowly.”

Plato

On every list of the ten most brilliant persons who have ever lived should be the name of Plato.  He lived in Athens from 429 B.C. to 347 B.C.

At the age of twenty-eight, Plato had been horrified by the stupidity of the government that condemned and executed Socrates.  Plato became convinced that the tragedy of democratic government was that incompetent persons secured positions of authority.

Plato wrote The Republic to show how government should be directed by persons outstanding in goodness and wisdom.  He believed that superior knowledge is the characteristic of a true statesman just as knowledge distinguishes the true physician from the quack.

In the ideal society of Plato,  each citizen would perform the type of work for which the person was best suited.

Later in life, Plato wrote a book known as The Laws which showed that law is a civilizing force.  Law embodies wisdom in written form.

Plato taught that every person should make rational principles preside over emotions and appetites.  He indicated that a new type of life begins for us after our mortal bodies die.  He told a story of a slain soldier who returned to life with a message that the just and the unjust are separated in the afterlife.

Plato’s school in Athens was called The Academy.  Some scholars regard The Academy as the first university.

Aristotle

The greatest genius of the ancient world was Aristotle who was a student of Plato.  Aristotle lived from 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.

The focus here is on Aristotle as a genius in the field of philosophy.  For Aristotle, the soul of a human being was the fundamental source of vegetative, sensitive, and rational powers.  Human beings are both material beings and spiritual beings.  A person’s rational powers are supposed to rule over sensitive appetites; reason must rule over passion.

Aristotle advocated that human beings should form good habits in order to promote personal happiness.  Young persons need the help of parents and of teachers to learn to keep their passions and emotions under the control of reason.

Family life provides persons food, shelter, personal love and friendship, and the propagation of the human race.  Government provides security by maintaining ethical standards.  The purpose of government is to provide for the common good of all the people.

Aristotle recommends the doctrine of the mean, which involves taking a middle course between two extremes.  In governmental affairs, trouble arises if the very rich or the very poor have complete control.  The doctrine of the mean dictates that most authority should reside with the middle class.

Cicero

Cicero was a Roman genius who was renowned as a champion of the Roman Republic and of Roman law.

He received an excellent legal education.  After he entered public service, he moved steadily upward until he reached the high office of consul.  From this post, he moved into the Roman Senate where he distinguished himself by his skills in writing and in speaking.

When Pompey and Caesar were rivals for leadership, Cicero declined to give his support to either one.  He feared that the victor would become a dictator.  Later he faced a similar problem when Anthony and Octavian were rivals.  Cicero spoke out many times in the Senate as a defender of the Republic.

Cicero gave up his life in defense of his principles.  His enemies displayed their hatred of his spoken words by killing him and then cutting off his head and his hands.  His head and his hands were placed on the podium of the Senate to show that Cicero had been silenced.

Cicero advocated a philosophy of Stoicism which viewed reason as the creative force residing in each human being.  Stoics wanted to work under the fatherhood of God in the service of their fellow human beings.

Cicero believed that lawyers should be priests of justice.  In his work, the Dream of Scipio, he envisaged heaven as a reward for distinguished work in public service.

Cicero was born in 106 B.C. and he was assassinated in 44 B.C.

Virgil

The supreme poet in Greek literature is Homer, and the supreme poet in Roman literature is Virgil.  The poems of Virgil were used in textbooks in Roman schools.  These poems have had an enormous impact upon English literature.

Virgil was born in 70 B.C. in northern Italy in a farm family of modest means.  In his schooling, he became familiar with the Greek and Roman writers of earlier ages.  He benefited from the learning of previous generations and he became a source of learning for future generations.

During twenty-nine years of Virgil’s life, death and destruction prevailed in his land.  First there was civil war between Caesar and Pompey, and then there was civil war involving Brutus, Cassius, Mark Anthony, and Octavian.

The greatest poem of Virgil is entitled The Aeneid.  It tells of the first settlement in Italy after the close of the Trojan War.  The theme is that the city of Rome had been divinely designated to bring peace, justice, order, and law to the whole world.

The Aeneid was used by John Milton as a model when he wrote Paradise Lost.

Dante honored Virgil by making Virgil a guide in the afterlife in the poem, The Divine Comedy.

Seneca

During his lifetime, Seneca was probably the most brilliant person in the government of the Roman Empire.  He was born in 4 B.C. and he died in 65 A.D.

Seneca in his early adult years won prominence as a lawyer, as an orator, as an author, and as a government official.

He escaped execution by the Emperor Caligula when the Emperor was persuaded by his associates that Seneca would soon die a natural death.  Seneca was very sickly in appearance.  He was short and thin.  He had poor eyesight and he suffered from a severe case of asthma.

Emperor Claudius banished Seneca to the island of Corsica where he remained for eight years.  In 49 A.D., Seneca was recalled to home to serve as a teacher for the twelve year old boy, Nero.

When Nero became Emperor, Seneca was placed in charge of government operations.  He introduced many improvements.

Gradually the Emperor Nero became mentally unbalanced.  After Nero arranged to have his own mother killed, Seneca decided to retire from Nero’s service.  In time, Nero came to view Seneca as an enemy.  Nero passed a sentence of death upon Seneca.

Seneca like Cicero was an adherent of Stoicism.  He once wrote as follows:

“A holy spirit indwells within us,

one who marks our good and bad deeds …”

Seneca wanted intelligent persons to enter government service, but he said that an even nobler pursuit was to become a teacher.

Justinian

A popular saying is “It is not what you know but rather whom you know that is important in personnel advancement.”  Undoubtedly, many persons of genius have never had an opportunity to display their abilities.

The genius, Justinian, was born into a peasant family, but he was fortunate in having an uncle who held a high military rank.  This uncle paved the way for Justinian’s entry into important offices in government service.

In 518 A.D. this uncle became the Emperor and in 527 A.D., he made Justinian the co-emperor.  When the uncle died, Justinian became the Byzantine Emperor.  He served in this post until his death in 565 A.D.

Justinian worked to establish an empire with universal laws.  He sponsored the compilation and revision of the Roman legal code.  This Code of Justinian continues to the present time to be the basis of the legal systems in a number of countries in Europe.

Justinian was noted as a builder of fortresses, aqueducts, bridges, churches, and charitable institutions.

He imported silkworms from China, and he made the silk industry a profitable state monopoly.

Justinian was devoted to his ruling responsibilities; he performed his duties with tireless energy.

Charlemagne

The most important ruler in the thousand year period from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance was the genius, Charlemagne.  He was born in 742 A.D.

Charlemagne was twenty-six years of age when he became King of the Franks.  He steadily expanded his kingdom by taking over all of present-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Switzerland and Germany.

In 774 A.D. he acquired a large part of Italy, and in 788, he secured control of Bavaria.

In 800 A.D. he was proclaimed to be the Emperor of the Roman Empire of the West.  On the borders of his Empire were two other great powers -- the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Empire.

Charlemagne built new roads, established cities as centers of trade, supported artists, helped artisans, made life more safe and secure, and showed how church and state could work in cooperative fashion.

Charlemagne died at the age of seventy in 814 A.D.  His successors lacked his genius in government administration.  They were unable to protect the people in the Empire from the raids of barbarian marauders.

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great was the only king of England who was given the title, “the Great.”  Alfred was born in 849 A.D.

In the ninth century, England was under attack from Danish Vikings who would arrive periodically in fleets of about three hundred fifty ships.  They would conduct raids in large areas of England, killing people and destroying property.  They also established some permanent fortresses in England.

At the age of twenty-two, Alfred became King of Wessex.  In 878 A.D., he gathered together all available men who could bear arms.  He was victorious in a great battle against the Vikings.

Alfred began to build ships that were longer and higher than the ships of the invading Vikings.  He might be said to have started the British navy.

In the part of England that Alfred controlled, he built fortresses for his people and he helped people to rebuild their devastated properties.  He persuaded scholars from other lands to come to England to help to revive learning.

Alfred compiled a code of laws that gave preference to fines over severe physical punishments.  A murderer, for example, would be forced to provide large compensation to the family of the victim.

Louis IX

A major city in the United States is named after a French king who lived in the thirteenth century.  This king, Louis IX, lived from 1214 A.D. to 1270 A.D.

Louis officially became King of France in 1226 at the age of twelve.  His mother was made regent until Louis reached the age of twenty-one.  His mother was Blanche of Castille and she was a pervasive influence in his life.

During his reign, Europe faced danger from the westward sweep of the Mongols.  These invaders had flooded into Russia, into Hungary, up the Danube River, and to the shores of the Adriatic Sea.  Their further advance was halted because of the death of the Great Khan in 1242 A.D.

Trouble also appeared in the Holy Land.  Christians living there were under siege from the Saracens.  Louis led a crusade to the Holy Land.  His first objective was the conquest of Egypt, but there he suffered defeat and capture.  His release was secured only after a large ransom was paid.

Upon his return to France, Louis concentrated on improving government.  He came to be loved by the people because he instituted a number of major reforms.  He protected the people from arbitrary actions by royal officers and by local lords.  He banned duels and ordeal by battle.

Louis embarked on a second crusade to the Holy Land.  This time in the course of the campaign he came down with a fever and died.

Louis IX was successful in making the monarchy a respected institution in France. 

Dante

One of the most fascinating stories in all of history is the story of the love of the poet, Dante, for the beautiful young lady, Beatrice.

Dante first saw Beatrice when she was nine years of age.  He loved her from afar until she died at the age of twenty-five.  Love for Beatrice provided the inspiration for the poetry written by Dante.

Dante was born in 1265 A.D. and the died at the age of 57 in 1321 A.D.  He is most renowned for his poem, the Divine Comedy.  This poem gives a terrifying description of an imaginary journey through purgatory, hell, and paradise.  The journey was supposed to have started on Good Friday in the the year 1300 A.D.

On part of this journey in the afterlife, Dante has Beatrice serve as a guide.  Dante regarded Beatrice as one of God’s masterpieces.

Another of Dante’s guides is his hero, the Roman poet Virgil.  Each person met on this famous journey in the afterlife is an historical personage whose record in life has been judged by Dante as justifying eternal reward or eternal punishment.  Literary descriptions to lands in the afterlife are also to be found in Homer’s Odyssey and in Virgil’s Aeneid.

The good and the evil life of mankind on earth is the theme of the Divine Comedy.

Chaucer

The first literary genius who wrote in the English language is Geoffrey Chaucer.  He lived from 1345 A.D. to 1400 A.D.

Chaucer’s eminence as the supreme English poet of the Middle Ages has been acknowledged by many scholars.  During his lifetime, most persons in the upper classes in England used French as their language and most scholars and churchmen in England used Latin as their language.

Chaucer led a busy life serving in important government positions during the reigns of three different kings of England.  His scholarly pursuits of reading and writing were carried on after his regular duties had been performed each day.  He wrote because he found pleasure in expressing his ideas.

His masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, is based on a lifetime of observation of human beings.  Chaucer deals with thirty persons who are traveling together over the Dover Road from London to the tomb of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury.  For entertainment on the journey, each member of the group has agreed to tell two stories.  Chaucer brings out, through the device of the stories, the characteristics of each person in the group.  Only twenty-one stories are actually reported.

Toward the end of his life, Chaucer worried that the realism of his word portraits might give scandal to some readers.  He was a Christian gentleman who did not wish to hurt anyone.

Gutenberg

The German genius, Johannes Gutenberg, will always be remembered as a pioneer in the art of printing and as the person responsible for the masterpiece, The Gutenberg Bible.

His early business activities were in the work of cutting and polishing precious stones and afterwards in the manufacture of mirrors.  In 1438, he enlisted financial assistance of three other persons with the objective of developing the art of printing.

Twenty years of research and experimentation were required before he was able to prepare a workable printing press.  The printing equipment had to be designed and built; the right metals had to be discovered for use in making letters; and the right kind of ink had to be found.  In solving these problems, Gutenberg spent all of his own money and he borrowed large sums of money.

His printing press was ready for printing large quantities of material when his major creditor in 1455 got a court judgment against Gutenberg. This sudden demand for repayment of debts resulted in Gutenberg surrendering his invention to his creditor.

Gutenberg was about sixty years of age when his dream of success in life was ended.

Gutenberg’s invention was so well-developed that it was continued in use with almost no changes for a period of four hundred years.

Gutenberg in his last years was supplied with the necessities of life by the Archbishop of Mainz.  Gutenberg was born about 1397 and died in 1468.

Joan of Arc

Are you willing to consider a teenage, uneducated girl as meriting status as a genius?

Only a very extraordinary person would warrant the attention that has been given to Joan of Arc who lived in France from 1412 A.D. to 431 A.D.  Scholarly biographies, essays, plays, poems, novels, paintings, sculptures, songs, operas, ballets, and films have had Joan as their main subject.  Do you know anyone who has never heard of Joan of Arc?

In her little village Joan and her fellow villagers faced plague, famine, dire poverty, and daily dangers from roving bands of robbers and murderers.  Her local area was devastated by armies in combat during the period of the Hundred Years War.  English armies were fighting to assert English rule over France.

This peasant girl took on the mission of winning the war for France.  She convinced a nobleman to provide her with a horse, with armor, with a sword, and with a small group of soldiers.  Gradually, Joan became a prominent figure on battlefields.  She was wounded in two battles.

The English soldiers began to be afraid of Joan believing that she was bewitched.  Joan was captured in 1430, and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 when she was 19 years of age.

Today, she stands as a heroine in the history of France.  Saint Joan of Arc was canonized by the Catholic Church in Saint Peter's Basilica on May 16th, 1920.

Columbus

Christopher Columbus has the distinction of making one of the most momentous discoveries in the history of mankind.  His discovery of America change the course of history.

Columbus was born in the Italian seacoast city of Genoa in 1451.  He received a basic education in arithmetic, reading, and writing before he started to work at the age of fourteen.  He served as a seaman on small sailing ships that traveled along the shorelines of Italy and Africa.  He also sailed to England, Ireland, and Iceland.

He learned how to handle a ship that was propelled by the wind; he learned about ocean currents; and he learned about navigating by the stars.

Columbus secured money from the Spanish rulers for his project of finding a new trade route to India.  He overcame major problems in his long voyage west before he reached the new world on October 12, 1492.  He believed that he had reached the East Indies and for this reason he called the natives, Indians.

Columbus made his voyage of discovery in three ships.  His flagship, the Santa Maria, had a crew of forty; the second ship, the Nina, had a crew of twenty-four; and the third ship, the Pinta, had a crew of twenty-six.

Columbus made a total of four voyages to America.  He died on May 20, 1506 at the age of 55.

Leonardo da Vinci

Time after time in past centuries individuals were successful in expressing their genius in spite of the fact that they did not have a good formal education.

Leonardo da Vinci received only a basic education in reading, writing, and arithmetic.  At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to an excellent artist who provided instruction in painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts.

In an artisan environment, Leonardo’s lessons were in the form of demonstrations rather than instruction from textbooks in a classroom.

Leonardo acquired a knowledge of physiology, mathematics, optics, botany, architecture, and engineering by his own efforts at self-education.

After the age of thirty, Leonardo was kept busy as a painter and as a sculptor.  Only seventeen of his paintings have survived.  Two of the most famous are The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo also put in literary form many scientific studies.  He habitually made notes on his perceptions and experiences.  He wrote a treatise on architecture, a book on mechanics, a work on human anatomy, a treatise on painting, and notebooks on a variety of subjects.

Leonardo regarded the world as the masterpiece made by the Supreme Artist.  He tried to give visible expression to the beauty that he saw in nature.

Leonardo was living in Rome at the same time as the artists Raphael and Michelangelo.  Leonardo was born in 1452 and he died in 1519 at the age of 67.

Copernicus

Copernicus was a genius with many admirable traits.  He was a quiet, gentle, mild-mannered, austere, pious, and high principled person.  He became a universal genius by diligent study for fourteen years at universities in Cracow, Bologna, Padua, Ferrara, and Rome.

His broad education qualified him as an astronomer, a mathematician,  a geographer, an authority on classical literature, and an administrator.

Copernicus at the age of forty began to live in a tower situated next to the Frauenburg Cathedral.  From his tower, he could see the nearby Baltic Sea but, of greater importance, he had an unobstructed view of the night sky.  He stayed here for thirty years.

True astronomy started with Copernicus.  He showed that the earth performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion and the earth rotates around the sun in a yearly rotation.  Facts secured by Copernicus were attained from observations made with his unaided eyesight.

The entire life of Copernicus was relatively peaceful and pleasant.  The storm of foolish criticism of his astronomical discoveries came years after his death.

Copernicus was born in 1473 and he died in 1543.

Michelangelo

The genius, Michelangelo, was born in Florence, Italy in 1475.

When he was still a child, his mother died and father put Michelangelo in the home of a stonecutter.  In this home, Michelangelo received loving care.

At the age of thirteen, Michelangelo began to study painting under the guidance of a famous artist.  Two years later at the age of fifteen, Michelangelo began to attend a school for sculptors.

When Michelangelo began to produce artistic works of his own making, he used stories from the Bible was his subject matter.  He prepared a statue of Moses using Carrara marble.  He depicted the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus.  This statue was made with white marble.

Michelangelo told the story of mankind from the creation of the universe to the birth of Christ in the paintings that he made on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  This work in the Sistine Chapel took four years to complete.

Beginning at the age of 68, he worked for eight years to prepare the paintings -- the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter.

In his seventies, he designed a magnificent dome for St. Peter’s Church in Rome.

Michelangelo died at the age of 89.

Thomas More

The English lawyer, Thomas More, went from the highest office of the King of England to the miserable condition of a prisoner in the Tower of London.  His crime was disobeying an order of the King. The King was demanding that Thomas More take an oath acknowledging that Henry VIII was the supreme ruler of church and state.

More’s wife offered him a strong argument for obeying Henry VIII.  She said:

“You might be abroad with your liberty and with the favor and goodwill both of the King and his Council if you would do as all the bishops and best learned of this realm have done.  You have at Chelsea a right fair house, your library, your books, your gallery, your garden, your orchard and all other necessaries so handsome about you where you in company with me, your wife, your children, your grandchildren, be merry.”

More gave up this good life to live in a filthy prison cell.  He had tried to avoid a confrontation with the King by resigning as the Chancellor of England.  He pleaded in court for the liberty to remain silent as a private citizen.

More was executed by having his head cut off.  His last words were:  “I die the King’s good servant but God’s first.”

He was born in 1478 and he died in 1535 at the age of 57.  In 1935, four hundred years after his death, Saint Thomas More was canonized by the Catholic Church.   The play A Man for All Seasons is an excellent drama about his life.

Galileo

Persons looking up at the night sky with their unaided eyes get a magnificent view of millions of stars if these persons get away from the bright lights of a modern city.

The genius, Galileo, secured a sensational view of the heavens when he looked at the night sky with the assistance of his new telescope.  His telescope provided a view that was thirty times better than the view of the unaided eye.

In 1611, Galileo offered evidence that the astronomical teachings of Aristotle and Ptolemy were incorrect.  Influential persons were appalled that this individual would dare to criticize the science of Aristotle.  Another serious complaint against Galileo was that he was trying to make people believe something that was contrary to the Bible.

Formal charges were brought against Galileo.  Ten judges sat together to hear the case in court.  Galileo was ordered to recant.  He accepted the decision of the court.

Galileo’s ideas were already in print and in circulation.  His ideas were winning acceptance by scholars in many nations.  Soon the new teachings of Galileo were recognized as factual.

Galileo was a man of science.  His great contribution to science was showing how the mathematical approach to physical problems would produce worthwhile results.  Galileo’s abilities were also great in teaching, in writing, and in music.

He was born in 1564 and he died in 1642.

Shakespeare

William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616.  Today his writings are read by more persons than at any time since they were written.  For four centuries his writings have retained their popularity.  He is probably the greatest writer in all of English literature.

Shakespeare had excellent teachers who provided him with a good basic education in grammar school.  This short formal education served as a foundation for his self-study to become a self-made writer.

He had a fabulous memory that enabled him to make use of material from the many books that he read.  He used material from Plutarch’s Lives for his Roman plays.  Source material came from Seneca, Ovid, Spenser, Chaucer, Marlowe, Sidney, and many other authors.

In his poetic verse, he wrote six plays with a Greek background, six with a Roman setting, twelve deal with English history, and fourteen are set in Renaissance Europe.

Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare:  “He was not of an Age, but for all time!”

Shakespeare was a genius as a poet; he had a remarkable ear for rhyme.

Shakespeare had a long apprenticeship in becoming a self-made writer.  Success came to him only after a long struggle.

Pascal

The genius, Blaise Pascal, was educated at home by his father who believed that school children were pushed into some studies before they were ready to assimilate the material.  The father delayed his son’s instruction in mathematics until Blaise was fifteen years old.

Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 and died in 1662 at the young age of thirty-nine.  In this short span of life, he won recognition as a master of French prose, as a mathematician, as a physicist, and as an authority on spiritual life.

Blaise was only three years old when his mother died, and he was 26 years old when his beloved father died.  Blaise commented on his father’s death:

“Had I lost him six years ago, I should have been lost.”

Among Blaise’s inventions were a calculating machine, a syringe, and a hydraulic press.  He produced significant studies in hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, and he established the foundation for the calculus of probabilities.

His thinking on spiritual matters is presented in the book, Pensees.  In one part of this book he discussed the greatest gamble that a person can make in life.  If a person maintains that God does not exist, the person is risking an irreparable loss in the future.

Pascal was deeply attached to his religious faith and also to modern science.

John Dryden

Among the tombs of renowned English authors in the Poets’ Corner of the Westminister Abbey is the tomb of John Dryden who was Poet Laureate of England from 1668 to 1689.

During his lifetime many notable events occurred.  He lived during the time that Charles I was arrested and executed.  Dryden was a contemporary of John Milton with whom he had worked in the government headed by Oliver Cromwell.  Dryden saw the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II.  Dryden lived through the terrible Black Death plague of 1664-1665 and the great fire of London in 1666.  He observed the Revolution of 1688 when William and Mary became the English monarchs.

Dryden dominated 17th century English literature in lyric and satiric poetry, in drama, in criticism, and in prose.  A complete collection of his writings fills eighteen volumes.

In Dryden’s era, a person’s religious affiliation was important in public attitudes.  Dryden became unpopular when he became a Catholic.   He responded to criticism in this way:

“If joys hereafter must be purchased here

With loss of all that mortals hold so dear,

Then welcome infamy and public shame,

And, last, a long farewell to worldly fame.”

Dryden was born in 1631 and he died at the age of 68 in 1700.

Alexander Pope

The genius, Alexander Pope, encountered open ridicule from some persons who considered him an ugly cripple.  He had a dwarfish body being only four and a half feet tall; he had a hunched back; and he had chronic ill health.  In spite of his physical deformity, he attracted many friends who regarded his marvelous mind as being more important than his misshapen body.

As an infant and child, he was surrounded by loving relatives.  His parents, his maiden aunt, and his faithful nurse had great affection for him.

Alexander secured just enough formal education to enable him to embark on a rigorous program of self-education in the great classics of literature.  Among his favorite authors were Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.

The writings of Alexander Pope fill ten volumes.  Especially well known are his Essay on Criticism and his Essay on Man.  Lord Byron called Pope:

“the great moral poet

of all times, of all climes,

of all feelings, and

of all stages of existence.”

Alexander was born in 1688 and he died at the age of 56 in 1744.

Since 1950, over one hundred volumes have been published about Pope’s poetry.  This fact makes evident that there is a renewed interest in his writings.

Samuel Johnson

The success that many men have enjoyed in life often is based on the help provided to them by good women.  Samuel Johnson, who lived from 1709 to 1784, had important help from several women.

Samuel’s mother taught him to read and to write.  A second woman, Mrs. Oliver, also served as a teacher in his early years.

As a person of genius, Samuel needed only a basic education to enable him to start on the process of self-education.  He spent his time as a young man reading in the haven of his father’s bookstore.  Samuel acquired an extensive knowledge of classical literature and a knowledge of law.

In 1728, he was admitted to Oxford University.  He was delighted with this opportunity for a university education, but he was able to stay at Oxford for only one year. He had no money to continue to pay school expenses.

In 1738, he married a good woman who accepted him as a husband in spite of his being penniless and unemployed, in spite of his being ugly in appearance, having poor eyesight, and being afflicted with annoying personal mannerisms.  His wife provided stability in his life.

The entire story of Samuel Johnson’s rise to prominence is detailed in what is probably the most famous biography ever written -- The Life of Johnson by James Boswell.

Rochambeau

An argument can be made that Jean Rochambeau should be listed as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

As a fifteen year old in France,  Rochambeau entered the military academy, Ecole St. Cyr.  After his education was completed, he entered the French army in which he steadily advanced to Captain, Colonel, Brigadier-General, and Lieutenant-General.

From July 1, 1780 to January, 1783, he commanded the French expeditionary force fighting in America in support of the Colonial soldiers under General George Washington.  Rochambeau persuaded Washington to attack the British army at Yorktown.

In the Battle of Yorktown, Rochambeau provided a total fighting force of 31,000 men from the French army and the French navy.  General Washington was able to provide only 8300 soldiers.  Yorktown’s victory for the American army was made possible by Rochambeau.

Upon a return to France, Rochambeau was promoted to the rank of Marshal, which is the highest rank in the French army.

During the French Revolution, Rochambeau was put in prison and was in danger of being executed by the radicals.  He was freed after the tyrant, Robespierre, died.

For a full account of his contribution to American success in the American Revolution, a reader should consult the scholarly biography entitled Rochambeau written by Arnold Whitridge.

Edmund Burke

A person of genius needs an opportunity to display outstanding talents.  Edmund Burke secured this opportunity when he was appointed as private secretary to Charles Wentworth, who was a prominent figure in England.

This job as a private secretary paved the way for Burke to become a candidate for election to the British House of Commons.  He won the election and then won widespread admiration by reason of his brilliance in public speaking and his skill in writing.  Burke was soon identified as one of the great prose stylists of his century by such authorities as Thomas DeQuincy, William Macauley, and Matthew Arnold.

In Parliament, Burke courageously defended the rights of the American colonists, the rights of the people of India, and the rights of the Irish people.

Burke had a deep respect for institutions that had existed for centuries.  He had a reverence for law and order, and he was appalled by the radicalism of the French revolutionaries.

After Marie Antoinette was beheaded, Burke wrote:

“Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters falling upon her in a nation of gallant men and cavaliers.  I  thought ten thousand swords much have leapt from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.  But the Age of Chivalry is gone …”

Burke was born in 1729 and he died in 1797.

Joseph Haydn

Many geniuses are to be found in the world of music.  One of these is Joseph Haydn who started life as a member of an extremely poor family.

The story is told that, when Joseph was four years old, a school rector observed Joseph moving a stick back and forth across his extended left arm pretending to be playing a violin.  At the time, Joseph’s father was playing a harp and Joseph’s mother was singing.  The rector was impressed to such an extent that he offered to arrange the child’s education.

Hadyn was given a basic education including instruction in music.  Next the rector arranged for Joseph to attend the Choir School at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.  He stayed here until the age of sixteen when he embarked on self-study of music.  He supported himself by giving music lessons, by playing in an orchestra, and by serving as a church organist.  His money problems ended in 1761 when he was employed as a musical director.

Haydn was internationally famous during his lifetime.  He is famous for his outstanding work in all forms of musical composition.  Beethoven was a pupil of Haydn; Mozart expressed his indebtedness to Haydn.

Today Haydn is especially popular in England and in countries on the European continent.

Haydn was born in 1732 and he died in 1809.

James Madison

A jocular statement about genius may have an element of truth when applied to the American statesman, James Madison.  The saying is “Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”

Madison was a well-educated man, a Princeton graduate.  He became a member of the Continental Congress, and he helped to get the Articles of Confederation approved.

In 1787 he became a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention.  He was faithfully in attendance every working day.  He helped to settle disputes between the small and the large states.  He was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers.  He helped to secure ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Madison served as a Congressman in the first Congress.  His support of a tax bill was important in providing a firm financial foundation for the new government.  He introduced the amendments to the Constitution that are known as the Bill of Rights.

In Jefferson’s administration, Madison was Secretary of State and advisor to the President.

From 1809 to 1817, he was President of the United States.

In later life, Madison served as Rector of the University of Virginia.

His life lasting from 1750 to 1836 was remarkable for his distinguished service to the American government.

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was one of the outstanding novelists of the 19th century.  Her six novels are beautifully-written works of English literature.

Jane was the daughter of an English clergyman.  She first lived in the village of Steventon, then in the city of Bath, then in Southampton, and finally in the small village of Chawton.

She wrote about life in the small social circles in which her family lived.  She was well aware of the limited scope of her novels.  She compared herself to a painter of miniatures.

Young women are shown in her novels as facing loneliness, but in each novel the ending is happy.

Jane lived in the midst of an affectionate family with a network of friends.  She depicts in clear fashion middle class life in England.

Her best novels are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816).  Northanger Abbey was published posthumously in 1818.

The education of Jane Austen was mainly provided at home by her father.  Her father encouraged a love of learning in his children.

Jane never married.  She died at the age of 41.

Daniel O’Connell

The Irish genius, Daniel O’Connell, was a distinguished proponent of non-violence in settlement of political disputes.  He lived from 1775 to 1847.

During O’Connell’s lifetime, his country of Ireland was under the domination of the British Parliament.  O’Connell’s goal was to achieve independence for Ireland.  This goal was not achieved until long after the death of O’Connell.

He was a lawyer by profession, and he insisted that the Irish people abide by the rule of law in striving for independence.

O’Connell was elected to the English Parliament in 1836.  He became in Parliament an eloquent spokesman demanding for the Irish people “perfect equality of rights, laws, and liberty.”

At huge gatherings in Ireland, O’Connell spoke in favor of home rule for Ireland.  He was arrested under a charge of sedition, and he was sentenced to one year in prison.  Near the end of his life, he said:  “I have spent fifty years of my life in agitation.”

During all these years, he consistently held to his belief that Irish independence might be achieved through non-violence.

After the famine began in 1845, O’Connell worked to help his people.  His death came during the years of famine.

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