244 PEESONAL PREPARATION FOR RESEARCH. 



which truly constitutes genius.' ' Infinite patience is 

 the truly scientific spirit.' l Helvetius said : ' Genius is 

 nothing but a continued attention.' And Lord Chester- 

 field remarked, ' that the power of applying the attention 

 steadily and undissipatedly to a single object is a sure 

 mark of a superior genius.' A genius is usually one who, 

 whilst young, either inherited or acquired a strong love 

 for some portion of the great domain of natural truth, 

 either in science or art ; a good example of it may be 

 found in 'The Life of a Scotch Naturalist,' by S. 

 Smiles. ' Oddities and singularities of behaviour may 

 attend genius ; when they do, they are its misfortunes and 

 its blemishes.' 2 'Men do not make their homes un- 

 happy because they have genius, but because they have 

 not enough genius.' 3 



That great discoverers have some of the weaknesses of 

 ordinary men, is shown both in the instance of the illus- 

 trious Newton and in that of the celebrated philosopher 

 Cavendish. 'Sir Isaac Newton was probably the shyest 

 man of his age. He kept secret, for a time, some of 

 his greatest discoveries, for fear of the notoriety they 

 might bring him. His discovery of the binomial theorem 

 and its most important applications, as well as his still 

 greater discovery of the law of gravitation, was not 

 published for years after they were made ; and when he 

 communicated to Collins his solution of the theory of 

 the moon's rotation round the earth, he forbade him to 

 insert his name in connection with it in the " Philo- 

 sophical Transactions/' saying, " It would, perhaps, increase 

 my acquaintance the thing which I chiefly study to 

 decline." ' 4 



1 J. Morley. 2 Sir W. Temple. 3 Wordsworth. 



* Character, by S. Smiles, p. 250. Consult also the Life of Cavendish, 

 p. 166, by G. Wilson, in the Works of the Cavendish Society. 



