GENIUS AND TALENT. 309 



forth at its ease upon the listeninj^ ears of an 

 astonished and delighted public. Taking pains, 

 our geniuses told us, was a degradation far be- 

 neath their exalted level ; they had only to act as 

 the inspiration seized them, and they could turn 

 out magnificent works of art or literature almost 

 unconscious of the slightest effort. 



This was the high-flown sentiment of a higli- 

 flown age, an age that too often allowed itself to 

 be led astray by its own maxims, and to mistake 

 the rapid outpouring of fluent eccentricity for the 

 true note of divine genius. On the otlier hand, it 

 has been well said by a far more profound and 

 genuine thinker that genius is nothing more than 

 an infinite capacity for taking trouble. This hist 

 description indeed offends at once against many 

 people's conventional notions as to the sponta- 

 neity and unconsciousness of genius ; but it is, we 

 nevertheless believe, by far the truest, the deep- 

 est, and the best one. And it is also a very 

 encouraging and helpful view for every one of us; 

 for it not only breaks down the imaginary barrier 

 between genius and talent, but even that between 

 either genius or talent and mere ordinary hard- 

 working industry. It suggests this great and 

 important truth, that nothing really useful or 

 valuable can ever be done without application, 

 and that, with application, there is liardly any- 

 thing quite inaccessible to us. The genius, we 



