GREAT EXAMPLES 311: 



and physical education, would have had early in his careei 

 a chance in any biological competition. Biological text- 

 books, lectures and museums had little or no share in 

 making them what they were. 



Both were eminent observers and experimenters. Both, 

 I imagine, if interrogated as to the secret of their pro- 

 ductiveness, would have attributed it mainly to the habit 

 of independent observation, reflection and verification by 

 experiment. 



Genius, we may be told, is an exception to all rules. I 

 for one do not admit this as an axiom ; genius conforms 

 to certain generalisations from ordinary human experience. 

 Their ancestry and their associates helped to make Darwin 

 and Pasteur what they were. Nor, though they stood 

 out higher by the head and shoulders than the other 

 eminent biologists of the century, did they fail to show 

 the qualities which bring success to smaller men. Perse- 

 verance, candour and trust in scientific inquiry are among 

 the ordinary virtues of all deserving men of science ; in 

 Darwin and Pasteur these virtues were carried to the 

 heroic point. I do not quite believe that Darwins and 

 Pasteurs come among us like lightning from heaven ; there 

 are surely reasons why they should appear in some ages, 

 and some nations, and some families, but not in others. 

 Whether we can by taking thought make such men more 

 frequent is not adequately proved, but since the lower 

 degrees of their qualities are clearly beneficial and to some 

 extent capable of cultivation, it would be wise to encourage 

 these lower grades wherever they show themselves. Among 

 the lower and ordinary manifestations of those qualifica- 

 tions for biological discovery which became illustrious in 

 Darwin and Pasteur, I should reckon curiosity, the habit 

 of observation and the habit of experiment. We shall 

 certainly not spoil any unrecognised Darwin or Pasteur 

 by giving opportunity for the exercise of these pro- 

 pensities, and we may possibly favour the production of 

 genius. 



