BEFORE GENIUS 141 
books are produced: that are a mere skin of elegant 
words blown up by copious literary gas. 
In imaginative works, especially, much depends 
upon the quality of mere weight. A stern, mate- 
rial inertia is indispensable. It is like the immo- 
bility and power of resistance of a piece of ordnance, 
upon which the force and efficacy of the projectile 
finally depend. In the most daring flights of the 
master, there is still something which remains in- 
different and uncommitted, and which acts as re- 
serve power, making the man always superior to his 
work. He must always leave the impression that 
if he wanted to pull harder or fly higher he could 
easily do so. In Homer there is much that is not 
directly available for Homer’s purposes as_ poet. 
This is his personality —the real Homer — which 
lies deeper than his talents and skill, and which 
works through these by indirections. This gives 
the authority; this is the unseen backer, which 
makes every promise good. 
What depths can a man sound but his own, or 
what heights explore? ‘‘ We carry within us,” says 
Sir Thomas Browne, “‘the wonders we seek with- 
out us.” 
Indeed, there is a strict moral or ethical depend- 
ence of the capacity to conceive or project great 
things upon the capacity to be or do them. It is 
as true as any law of hydraulics or statics, that the 
workmanship of a man can never rise above the level 
of his character. He can never adequately say or 
do anything greater than he himself is. ‘There is 
