s with mankind. Countless times,
in indignation at their incapacity, their total lack of discernment,
their bestiality, I have been forced to echo the old complaint that
folly is the mother and the nurse of the human race:

_Humani generis mater nutrixque profecto
Stultitia est_.

But at other times I have been astounded that from such a race there
could have gone forth so many arts and sciences, abounding in so much
use and beauty, even though it has always been the few that produce
them. Yet these arts and sciences have struck root, established and
perfected themselves: and the race has with persistent fidelity
preserved Homer, Plato, Horace and others for thousands of years, by
copying and treasuring their writings, thus saving them from oblivion,
in spite of all the evils and atrocities that have happened in the
world. Thus the race has proved that it appreciates the value of these
things, and at the same time it can form a correct view of special
achievements or estimate signs of judgment and intelligence. When this
takes place amongst those who belong to the great multitude, it is by
a kind of inspiration. Sometimes a correct opinion will be formed by
the multitude itself; but this is only when the chorus of praise
has grown full and complete. It is then like the sound of untrained
voices; where there are enough of them, it is always harmonious.

Those who emerge from the multitude, those who are called men of
genius, are merely the _lucida intervalla_ of the whole human race.
They achieve that which others could not possibly achieve. Their
originality is so great that not only is their divergence from others
obvious, but their individuality is expressed with such force, that
all the men of genius who have ever existed show, every one of them,
peculiarities of character and mind; so that the gift of his works is
one which he alone of all men could ever have presented to the world.
This is what makes that simile of Ariosto's so true and so justly
celebrated: _Natura lo fece e poi ruppe lo stampo._ After Nature
stamps a man of genius, she breaks the die.

But there is always a limit to human capacity; and no one can be a
great genius without having some decidedly weak side, it may even be,
some intellectual narrowness. In other words, there will foe some
faculty in which he is now and then inferior to men of moderate
endowments. It will be a faculty which, if strong, might have been an
obstacle to the exerc