Characteristics 



ments, the illustrations ; the words came tumbling one over 

 the other in his brain, and as suddenly his idleness vanished, 

 and work, eager, prolonged, unwearying, filled his days and 

 months and years until the message was written down and 

 the task fully accomplished. Whilst writing he referred to 

 few books, but wrote straight on, adding paragraph to para- 

 graph, chapter to chapter, without recasting or revision/ 

 And the result was fresh, striking, original. It was a 

 creation. The work being done, he relapsed into his busy 

 idleness. The truth, as he saw it, seemed to come to him. 

 Some people called him a prophet, but he was not con- 

 scious of that high calling. I do not remember him say- 

 ing that He was only a messenger. Perhaps later, when 

 he was reviewing his life, he connected his sudden inspira- 

 tions with a higher source, but for their realisation he 

 relied upon a foundation of veritable facts, facts patiently 

 accumulated, a foundation laid broad and deep. He had 

 the vision of the prophet allied with the wisdom of the 

 philosopher and the calm mental detachment of the man 

 of science. Perhaps another explanation of his genius 

 may be found in his open-mindedness. Truth found ready 

 access to his conscience, and always a warm welcome, and 

 he saw with open eyes where others were stone-blind. 



He belonged to our common humanity. K^o caste or 

 acquired pride or unapproachable intellectualism cut him off 

 from the people. His simple humanness made him one with 

 us all. And his humanity was singularly comprehensive. 

 It led him, for instance, to investigate the subject of 



^ It is interesting to compare this with Darwin's manner of writing. Darwin 

 confessed : " There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to 

 put at first my statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form. For- 

 merly I used to think about my sentences before writing them down ; but 

 for several years I have found that it saves time to scribble in a vile hand 

 whole pages as quickly as I possibly can, contracting half the words ; and 

 then correct deliberately. Sentences thus scribbled down are often better 

 ones than I could have written deliberately." 



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