True meaning of word

Has this nation so debased the term genius that it has rendered that term meaningless?

English scientist Robert Hooke, a contemporary of Isaac Newton, invented the balance-escapement for clocks and watches, the universal joint, the respirator, microdots, the air pump, sash windows, the diving bell, the iris diaphragm, amalgam, the air gun, the micrometer, the cross-hair sight, the anemometer, the spirit level, the hygrometer, the ear trumpet and an early sonar device.

As though these were not enough, he founded the Royal Society, worked on flying machines, and wrote and illustrated Micrographia, a classic work concerned with microscopic phenomena.

All this, despite overwhelming odds against him, including smallpox, losing his father to suicide whilst still a child, and isolation by established scientists, including Newton, who clearly found him too clever for their own comfort.

Is this great, unsung, heroic man not closer to the true meaning of the term genius than today’s half-witted sportsmen and entertainers who are so frequently and absurdly described as such?

Incidentally, almost every historic figure of sublime and towering genius endured a life of extreme adversity, and those foolish enough to believe otherwise should reflect upon the tragic life of Robert Hooke. WILLIAM G. CARLYLE

North Little Rock