448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



treme heroism, they are not so intellectually ; and while they may 

 descend to depths of folly or imbecility impossible to the individ- 

 ual taken by himself, elevation to the supreme display of intelli- 

 gence and imagination is interdicted to them. They can, morally, 

 fall very low or rise very high ; but intellectually they can only 

 fall very low. While there are collective crimes, of which the 

 individual alone would be incapable assassinations and pillages 

 by armed bands, revolutionary fires, epidemics of venality, etc. 

 there are also collective achievements of heroism in which the 

 individual rises above himself charges of the legendary six hun- 

 dred, patriotic revolts, epidemics of martyrdom, etc. But there 

 are no collective acts of genius that can be contrasted with these. 

 What discovery, invention, or real initiative within historical 

 times has been due to that impersonal being, the public ? Does 

 one say revolutions ? Not they ; what revolutions have accom- 

 plished in pure destruction, the public may claim partly at least ; 

 but what have they founded and introduced that was novel 

 that was not conceived and thought out before them or after 

 them by superior men like Luther or Napoleon ? Can any one 

 cite an army, however well constituted, from which an admirable 

 or even passable plan of campaign has sprung ? Or even a coun- 

 cil of war, which for the conception I will not say the discussion 

 of a military manoeuvre was worth the brain of the most ordi- 

 nary general in chief ? Was ever an immortal work in art, a 

 painting, a sculpture, an architectural design, or an epic poem, 

 imagined and wrought out by the collective inspiration of ten or 

 a hundred poets or artists ? All that is of genius is individual, 

 even in crime. 



To what is this signal contrast due ? Why is the grand dis- 

 play of intelligence refused to social groups, while a large and 

 strong display of will and even of virtue is within their reach Y 

 It is because the act of most heroic virtue is a very simple matter 

 in itself, and differs from the act of ordinary morality only in 

 degree. The power of unison in human assemblages, where emo- 

 tions and opinions re-enforce one another rapidly by their multi- 

 ple contact, is surely irresistible. But the work of genius or of 

 talent is always complicated and differs in nature not in degree 

 only from an act of ordinary intelligence. The question in a 

 regular process is not, as in this, one of perceiving and recollect- 

 ing at random, but of dealing with known perceptions and im- 

 ages in new combinations. At first sight it seems that ten, a 

 hundred, or a thousand heads together are better fitted than one 

 alone to embrace all the sides of a complex question. Peoples 

 of all times, acting under this illusion, have looked to religious 

 or political assemblages for the mitigation of their troubles. In 

 the middle ages, councils in modern times, states- general, par- 



