THE BOYHOOD OF TITIAN (Tish’-yan).
Pœta nascitur, non fit.
THERE, that is not Greek or German, but Latin, and some day your Pansy tongue will talk it off as readily, no doubt, as it now casts English to your cat. Won’t it be just splendid for you to be in the High School—and not at the foot of your class, either—reading Cæsar or Cicero or Horace?
STUDYING ITS CHARACTER.
“But what does that Latin mean?”
It means, “A poet is born, not made.”
“So is every one ‘born.’”
No, not born a poet, neither can be made into a poet by study; that is, a real true poet. Almost everybody can read poetry, and love it and make rhymes; but that is not being a poet.
You might just as well now learn that bit of Latin and surprise your mamma some day at the dinner-table by saying: “Pœta nascitur, non fit.” The next time you can say: “Orator nascitur, non fit,” for that is true too. It is true of an artist, and many, many others. We all have different gifts at birth. (See Rom. xii. 6.) Johnny Brown can sing and play upon almost any instrument. He is a born musician. His brother can’t play even upon a jew’s-harp, but he can make one. He can make a watch. His fingers can do all sorts of wonderful things such as Johnny’s cannot. Boys differ; girls differ. They can’t be made alike. One has one gift, one another.