Volume 21, Number 9 · May 30, 1974
He Tried Harder
By J.H. Plumb
The Life of Captain James Cook
by J.C. Beaglehole
Stanford University Press, 804 pp., $18.50
The qualities that make for success are at times baffling. G. H. Hardy, the great English mathematician, used to delight to point out that high intelligence was the least important quality for success in most human situations. Judgment he regarded as having little to do with intelligence (a view that may have been fortified by his friendship with Bertrand Russell); but even judgment, he thought, was of far less significance than application, a capacity to take risk, and luck. No one can make the most of his talents without constant application, or without taking frequent risks. Of course, Hardy allowed the importance of sheer gift—after all, that was the world he operated in; whatever else they may be, mathematicians, like musicians and painters, are gifted men. Gifted men are rare, but success is not uncommon in any age: And these considerations are peculiarly apt with regard to the fame of Captain Cook.
Review, 1260 words
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