HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



to the time of Phidias nobody has had a chisel suffi- 

 ciently hard to work on marble. Up to that time 

 they would only mould clay or carve wood. But a 

 clever smith discovers how a chisel can be tempered. 

 Phidias rejoices over the improved tools, fashions with 

 them his God-like statues and manipulates the marble 

 as no one has ever done before. He is honoured and 

 rewarded. But great geniuses are most modest just 

 in that in which they most excel others. That very 

 thing is so easy for them that they can hardly under- 

 stand why others cannot do it. But there is always 

 associated with high endowments a correspondingly 

 great sensitiveness for the defects of one's own work. 

 Thus, says Phidias to the smith, "Without your aid 

 I could have done nothing of that ; the honour and 

 glory belong to you." But the smith can only 

 answer him, "But I could not have done it even 

 with my chisels, whereas you, without my chisels, 

 could at least have moulded your wonderful works 

 in clay ; therefore I must decline the honour and 

 glory, if I will remain an honourable man." But 

 now Phidias is taken away, and there remain 

 his friends and pupils Praxiteles, Paionios, and 

 others. They all use the chisel of the smith. The 

 world is filled with their work and their fame. They 

 determine to honour the memory of the deceased with 

 a garland which he shall receive who has done the 

 most for the art, and in the art, of statuary. The 

 beloved master has often praised the smith as the 

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