MY CHARACTER AT TWENTY-ONE 225 



has also put me at a great disadvantage as a public speaker. 

 I can rarely find the right word or expression to enforce or 

 illustrate my argument, and constantly feel the same diffi- 

 culty in private conversation. In writing it is not so injur- 

 ious, for when I have time for deliberate thought I can gen- 

 erally express myself with tolerable clearness and accuracy. 

 I think, too, that the absence of the flow of words which so 

 many writers possess has caused me to avoid that extreme 

 diffuseness and verbosity which is so great a fault in many 

 scientific and philosophical works. 



Another important defect is in the power of rapidly seeing 

 analogies or hidden resemblances and incongruities, a defi- 

 ciency which, in combination with that of language, has pro- 

 duced the total absence of wit or humour, paradox or bril- 

 liancy, in my writings, although no one can enjoy and admire 

 these qualities more than I do. The rhythm and pathos, as 

 well as the inimitable puns of Hood, were the delight of my 

 youth, as are the more recondite and fantastic humour of 

 Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll in my old age. The faculty 

 which gives to its possessor wit or humour is also essential 

 to the high mathematician, who is almost always witty or 

 poetical as well ; and I was therefore debarred from any hope 

 of success in this direction; while my very limited power of 

 drawing or perception of the intricacies of form were equally 

 antagonistic to much progress as an artist or a geometrician. 



Other deficiencies of great influence in my life have been 

 my want of assertiveness and of physical courage, which, com- 

 bined with delicacy of the nervous system and of bodily con- 

 stitution, and a general disinclination to much exertion, 

 physical or mental, have caused that shyness, reticence, and 

 love of solitude which, though often misunderstood and lead- 

 ing to unpleasant results, have, perhaps, on the whole, been 

 beneficial to me. They have helped to give me those long 

 periods, both at home and abroad, when, alone and surrounded 

 only by wild nature and uncultured man, I could ponder at 

 leisure on the various matters that interested me. Thus was 

 induced a receptiveness of mind which enabled me at differ- 

 ent times to utilize what appeared to me as sudden intuitions 



