THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA 



THE precocity of genius, and in especial of mu- 

 sical genius, is a commonplace, but it is worthy 

 of note that certain orders of mental product are 

 not commonly formed in youth or even early 

 manhood. Conspicuous instances of epoch-mak- 

 ing works written in their authors' sixth decade 

 are Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Adam 

 Smith's Wealth of Nations. Similarly it was not 

 until his fortieth year that Spencer began the 

 actual construction of the evolutionary philosophy. 

 The inference, I take it, is not that any one, by 

 taking pains and time, can become a thinker ; for the 

 thinker, like the poet, and the man of genius of 

 any order, is born and not made; but in the case 

 of musical composition the product is less depend- 

 ent for its development upon education than in 

 the case of the production of philosophic systems, 

 which can firmly be grounded only upon a great 

 accumulation of knowledge to which, neither for 

 the genius nor any other, is there a royal road. 



The actual genesis of the philosophy of evolu- 

 tion was unconscious. Its author was interested 

 s 55 



