I4th March, igii. 



Sir John W. Bvers, M.D., President, in the Chair 



SOME THEORIES OF GENIUS. 

 By Mr. H. L. Stewart, M.A., D.Ph. 



{Abstract). 



The President said they were to have the privilege that 

 evening of hearing two papers dealing with subjects of a philo- 

 sophical and natural history nature, for the discussion of which 

 that old Belfast Society had been established ninety years ago. 

 The lecturers were distinguished teachers of the University. Mr. 

 Balfour-Browne came amongst them with very strong recom- 

 mendations from the University of Oxford, while Dr. Herbert 

 Stewart was a North of Ireland man — one of themselves — who, 

 after a briiliant career at Queen's College, had added to his 

 reputation by his achievements at Oxford. Mr. Balfour- Browne's 

 address would be of interest for its own sake, and it would 

 demonstrate the educational value of the careful scientific observa- 

 tion of facts. The study of the habits of the lower types of animal 

 and vegetable life had of late received a new impetus from their 

 close relationship with the dissemination of disease, as in the case 

 of the ordinary house fly, the mosquito, the rat, and the tsetse fly, 

 which conveyed the organism which gave rise to the deadly 

 sleeping sickness. He was looking forward with great pleasure 

 to hear Dr. Stewart bringing before them the latest theories as to 

 that highest form of mental gift or ability, which was bestowed, 

 not acquired, which was independent of tuition, and which 

 generally imported something inventive or creative. No doubt 

 many men of genius had what Carlyle in his " Frederick the 

 Great" called the " transcendent capacity of taking trouble first of 



