Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1909 (Heft 27))

THE MEASURE OF GREATNESS

ANY effort to define a proper basis upon which to value human
achievement is naturally attended with difficulty; there is prob-
ably no subject whereon wider divergence of opinion has been
expressed and certainly none is harder of contemporary analy-
sis; but in the light of judgment confirmed by the test of years,
it would seem that there is unquestionably something com-
mon to all truly great, whether soldier, statesman, poet, painter or photographer,
which is the determining factor in reaching a final appraisement. It is this
quality, which we may call the spirit of the individual, rather than his work—
which at best is but the expression of such spirit—which must be measured
before a proper valuation can be obtained.
It is naturally difficult for one gifted with moderate attainments, and with
a temperament styled artistic, to see either his own or his contemporary’s
work from the objective view point necessary for its proper estimation; but
to him with clearer vision, it must be apparent that certain deductions can
logically be drawn from the work and spirit of those accepted by the world
as great, which should prove helpful to all who are willing to be so helped.
Certain it is that great work must be inspired by great and disinterested
motives—without such motives the fitness of any work to survive may be
questioned—certain also is it that great work can emanate only from great
natures; conversely, that he who is capable of belittling himself and his work
by selfish or unworthy motive is incapable of greatness, even though he may,
for a time, persuade certain listless ones to accept the semblance of such for
its reality.
Some, sincere in the conviction that they possess the divine afflatus, lack
the saving sense of humour; some seem to assume that by clever simulation
they can hoodwink posterity; but the test of time will show them both for what
they are—they and their work will ultimately be measured by standards which
are absolute and true.
And so it is with all others—let whomsoever is honestly striving to accom-
plish something in this world, feel that the true valuation of his effort is to be
based upon the spirit which inspires such effort, and the world will be the
better, not only by the creation of better work, but by the lessening in intensity
of the note of overweening egoism which dominates so much of the product
of modern endeavor.
Herbert G. French.

45