INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 191 



physical science- 5 ; probably on this very account, 

 that it arises from the distinctness of intuitive 

 power with which the child conceives the shapes 

 and the working of such material combinations. 

 Newton's inventive power appears in the number 

 and variety of the mathematical artifices and com- 

 binations which he devised, and of which his books 

 are full. If we conceive the operation of the in- 

 ventive faculty in the only way in which it appears 

 possible to conceive it; that while some hidden 

 source supplies a rapid stream of possible sugges- 

 tions, the mind is on the watch to seize and detain 

 any one of these which will suit the case in hand, 

 allowing the rest to pass by and be forgotten ; we 

 shall see what extraordinary fertility of mind is 

 implied by so many successful efforts ; what an 

 innumerable host of thoughts must have been pro- 

 duced, to supply so many that deserved to be 

 selected. And since the selection is performed by 

 tracing the consequences of each suggestion, so as 

 to compare them with the requisite conditions, we 

 see also what rapidity and certainty in drawing 

 conclusions the mind must possess as a talent, and 

 what watchfulness and patience as a habit. 



The hidden fountain of our unbidden thoughts 

 is for us a mystery ; and we have, in our conscious- 

 ness, no standard by which we can measure our 

 own talents ; but our acts and habits are something 

 of which we are conscious ; and we can understand, 



28 As in Galileo, Hooke, Huyghens, and others. 



