SOME CONSEQUENCES OF GRAHAM'S WORK 587 



his latest philosophical speculations were illustrated. Graham 

 would not even allow his fancy that amount of play. Even in 

 the speculative essay from which I have quoted so largely, it 

 seems as if every word had been weighed and every sentence 

 put together with slow, laborious thought. This passionless 

 aspect of his work seems to have greatly impressed Angus 

 Smith, himself a man of lively sympathy and quick suscepti- 

 bility. ' His works,' says Smith, ' are full of care but not of joy.' " 



I am not prepared to agree either with Dalton or with Prof. 

 Thorpe. Men of genius may easily underrate themselves and 

 depreciate their work — as Dalton assuredly did his own powers 

 in the words I have quoted. And however true it may be that 

 some rise to greater eminence than others by attention to study 

 and by perseverance, eminence is not necessarily proof of superior 

 genius. Perhaps more often than we are aware the genius 

 arrives at a conclusion intuitively and instantly : he no sooner 

 has an idea than he has proved it to his own satisfaction ; the 

 laboured proof he puts forward subsequently is in deference to 

 public opinion, either to convince others less gifted with insight 

 or that they may appreciate his train of thought. The word 

 genius has an altogether special connotation, to my thinking ; 

 unless my reading of Graham's work be quite wrong, judging 

 from its wonderful completeness and logical consistency, I 

 should rate it as full of imagination : no man without imagina- 

 tion could have carried through a connected series of researches 

 like Graham's with regard to all the states of matter — gaseous, 

 liquid, solid, crystalline and colloid. But his imagination was 

 so sound, so true, that it enabled him to curb his mental 

 activity and prevented him from appearing to pass outside his 

 facts. When we consider how little beyond what he established 

 we know and understand of the intricate phenomena of diffusion, 

 his clearness of perception may well be regarded as surprising. 

 I seem to see more than care in his work — passion is there also 

 but held severely in check ; achievements such as his must have 

 given the fullest satisfaction to their author. 



After all — who shall say what is in a man's mind if he do not 

 care to disclose himself? As to Henry's reading of Dalton's, 

 probably it was impossible for Henry to understand Dalton : he 

 was not big enough ; every biographer has this difficulty : 

 Carlyle dwells on it, on many occasions, in discussing the 

 relation of hero to valet ; and no better example could be given 



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