316 OEXIVS AND TALENT. 



other admiring spectator, before tlie unobservant 

 eyes of the doniestic pig. One of liis servants 

 once remarked to a hidy of the family that " mas- 

 ter" would bo much livelier if he had something 

 to do, "for I saw him only this morjiing standing 

 for half an hour with his eyes straight before him, 

 looking at a plant growing out in the conserva- 

 tory." The great philosopher was really engnged 

 all that time in watching the effect of a ray of 

 sunlight in twisting a leaf out of its original di-ec- 

 tion. In itself, such an observation may seem 

 simple and trivial enough; but it was from an 

 immense number like it that Darwin finally built 

 up those great and embracing theories which have 

 done more to influence modern thought, for good 

 or for evil — take it as we will — than any others 

 ever broached since the sixteenth century. 



This view of the relations between genius and 

 talent has one great point to recommend it — in 

 the ordinary language of Scotch theology, it is in- 

 deed a very comfortable doctrine. If genius be 

 really nothing more than an exceptional capacity 

 for taking pains, then each one of us can come 

 much nearer to being a genius by our own delib- 

 erate exertions than we perhaps ever before sus- 

 pected. Instead of these exceptional persons 

 being divided from common humanity, as many 

 good souls imagine, by an impassable barrier, 

 there is really no possibility of drawing a line 



