Autobiography of Mark Twain (47 page)

IV.

THE RIDDLE OF ALL TIME
.
_^
An Eternal Enigma.
_^

“Riddle”
—
Anglice?

1. She is the Wonder of the Ages.
And w
hen we consider her origin, her early
circumstances,
_^
environment,
_^
her sex, and that she did all
the things
upon which her renown rests while
she was
still a young girl, we recognize that
while
_^
so long as
_^
our race
continues she will be also the Riddle of the Ages. When wc set about
_^
endures, the circumstances of her career will remain an insoluble problem. When we try to
_^
account
ing
for a Napoleon
or
a Shakspeare or a Raphael
or
a Wagner or an Edison or
_^
for
_^
other extraordinary person
, we understand that the measure of
his
_^
individual
_^
talent will not explain the whole result, nor even the l
argest
_^
greater
_^
part of it
; no, it is
_^
The explanation must be sought in
_^
the atmosphere
in
_^
amid
_^
which the talent was cradled
that explains; it is
_^
When we know, the training
which
it received while
it grew,
_^
young,
_^
the nurture it
got
_^
derived
_^
from reading, study
_^
and
_^
example, the encouragement it gathered from self-recognition and
recognition from the outside
_^
approval from its environment
_^
at each stage of
its
development: when we know all these
details, then we know why the man was ready when his opportunity came.
_^
details, we can understand how the genius was
_^
created and
_^
evolved
and thus was ready to seize his
by steady and congenial growth.
_^
We should expect Edison’s
surroundings
_^
environment
_^
and atmosphere to have the largest share in discovering him to himself and to the world;
and
we should expect him to live and die undiscovered in a land where an inventor could find no comradeship, no sympathy, no
ambition-rousing atmosphere of
recognition
and
_^
or
_^
applause
—Dahomey, for instance.
Dahomey
_^
, for instance,
_^
could not
find
_^
produce
_^
an Edison
out; in Dahomey an Edison could not find himself out. Broadly speaking, g
enius is