Generation 

 Genius 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



276 



advanced as late as 1859. Pasteur collected 

 the floating dust of the air, and found by 

 means of the microscope many organized 

 particles, which he sowed on suitable infu- 

 sions, and thus obtained rich crops of " ani- 

 malculse." He also demonstrated that these 

 organisms existed in different degrees in 

 different atmospheres, few in the pure air 

 of the Mer de Glace, more in the air of the 

 plains, most in the air of towns. He fur- 

 ther proved that it was not necessary to in- 

 sist upon hermetic sealing or cotton filters 

 to keep these living organisms in the air 

 from gaining access to a flask of infusion. 

 If the neck of the flask were drawn out into 

 a long tube and turned downwards, and then 

 a little upwards, even tho the end be left 

 open, no contamination gained access. 

 Hence, if the infusion were boiled, no putre- 

 faction would occur. The organisms which 

 fell into the open end of the tube were ar- 

 rested in the condensation water in the 

 angle of the tube; but even if that were 

 not so, the force of gravity acting upon 

 them prevented them from passing up the 

 long arm of the tube into the neck of the 

 flask. [See PASTEUR.] NEWMAN Bacteria, 

 ch. 1, p. 4. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1345. Universal Ancient 



Belief in Lucretius. It did not enter their 

 minds even to doubt that these low forms of 

 life were generated in the matters in which 

 they made their appearance. Lucretius, 

 who had drunk deeper of the scientific spirit 

 than any poet of ancient or modern times 

 except Goethe, intends to speak as a philoso- 

 pher, rather than as a poet, when he writes 

 that " with good reason the earth has gotten 

 the name of mother, since all things are pro- 

 duced out of the earth. And many living 

 creatures, even now, spring out of the earth, 

 taking form by the rains and the heat of 

 the sun." HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serai. 15, 

 p. 346. (A., 1895.) 



1346. GENIUS ACCOMPANIED BY 

 TIRELESS INDUSTRY Herschel Making 

 His Own Reflectors Undaunted by Many 

 Failures A Sister's Devotion. Having pur- 

 chased the apparatus of a Quaker optician, 

 he [Herschel] set about the manufacture of 

 specula with a zeal which seemed to antici- 

 pate the wonders they were to disclose to 

 him. It was not until fifteen years later 

 that his grinding and polishing machines 

 were invented, so the work had at that time 

 to be entirely done by hand. During this 

 tedious and laborious process (which could 

 not be interrupted without injury, and 

 lasted on one occasion sixteen hours), his 

 strength was supported by morsels of food 

 put into his mouth by his sister, and his 

 mind amused by her reading aloud to him the 

 " Arabian Nights," " Don Quixote," or other 

 light works. At length, after repeated fail- 

 ures, he found himself provided with a re- 

 flecting telescope a 5%-foot Gregorian of 

 his own construction. ~A copy of his first 

 observation with it on the great nebula in 



Orion an object of continual amazement 

 and assiduous inquiry to him is preserved 

 by the Royal Society. It bears the date 

 March 4, 1774. CLEBKE History of Astron- 

 omy, ch. 1, p. 14. (Bl., 1893.) 



1347. GENIUS DEVELOPED BY LABOR 

 Studious Industry of Mozart. That, not- 

 withstanding the exuberance of his own 

 creative power, Mozart constantly disci- 

 plined it by the most sedulous study, and 

 that he could, without being chargeable with 

 imitation, assimilate (so to speak) into his 

 own musical constitution all that he found 

 suitable in the works of others as pabulum 

 for his genius, is one of its most remarkable 

 features. " It is a very great error," he 

 wrote to a friend, " to suppose that my art 

 has become so exceedingly easy to me. I 

 assure you there is scarcely any one who 

 has worked at the study of composition as I 

 have. You could hardly mention any fa- 

 mous composer whose writings I have not 

 diligently and repeatedly studied through- 

 out." And, in this self-education, as Mr. 

 Holmes remarks, "whatever of striking, 

 new, or beautiful he met with in the works 

 of others, left its impression on him; and 

 he often reproduced these effects, not ser- 

 vilely, but mingling his own nature and 

 feeling Avith them, in a manner not less 

 surprising than delightful." CARPENTER 

 Mental Physiology, ch. 6, p. 274. (A., 

 1900.) 



1348. GENIUS, INSPIRATION OF 

 How Mozart Composed. We shall now en- 

 deavor to trace out the manner in which he 

 [Mozart] worked; and of this we fortunate- 

 ly have a pretty full account from himself 

 in a letter to a friend: 



" You say you should like to .know my 

 way of composing, and what method I fol- 

 low in writing works of some extent. I can 

 really say no more on the subject than the 

 following, for I myself know no more about 

 it, and cannot account for it. When I am, 

 as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, 

 and of good cheer, say, traveling in a car- 

 riage, or walking after a good meal, or dur- 

 ing the night when I cannot sleep ; it is on 

 such occasions that my ideas flow best and 

 most abundantly. Whence and how they 

 come I know not, nor can I force them. 

 Those ideas that please me I retain in my 

 memory, and am accustomed (as I have 

 been told) to hum them to myself. If I 

 continue in this way, it soon occurs to me 

 how 1 may turn this or that morceau to ac- 

 count, so as to make a good dish of it, that 

 is to say, agreeably to the rules of counter- 

 point, to the peculiarities of the various in- 

 struments, etc. 



" All this fires my soul, and, provided I 

 am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, 

 becomes methodized and defined, and the 

 whole, tho it be long, stands almost complete 

 and finished in my mind, so that I can sur- 

 vey it like a fine picture, or a beautiful 

 statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear in my 

 imagination the parts successively, but I 



