It is like
the immobility and the power of resistance of a piece of ordnance, upon
which the force and efficacy of the projectile finally depend. In
the most daring flights of the master, there is still something which
remains indifferent and uncommitted, and which acts as reserve power,
making the man always superior to his work. He must always leave the
impression that if he wanted to pull harder or to fly higher he could
easily do so. In Homer there is much that is not directly available
for Homer's purposes as poet. This is his personality,--the real
Homer,--which lies deeper than his talents and skill, and which works
through these by indirections. This gives the authority; this is the
unseen backer, which makes every promise good.

What depths can a man sound but his own, or what heights explore? "We
carry within us," says Sir Thomas Browne, "the wonders we seek without
us."

Indeed, there is a strict moral or ethical dependence of the capacity
to conceive or to project great things upon the capacity to be or to
do them. It is as true as any law of hydraulics or of statics, that the
workmanship of a man can never rise above the level of his character.
He can never adequately say or do anything greater than he himself is.
There is no such thing, for instance, as deep insight into the mystery
of Creation, without integrity and simplicity of character.

In the highest mental results and conditions the whole being
sympathizes. The perception of a certain range of truth, such as is
indicated by Plato, Hegel, Swedenborg, and which is very far from
what is called "religious" or "moral," I should regard as the best
testimonial that could be offered of a man's probity and essential
nobility of soul. Is it possible to imagine a fickle, inconstant, or a
sly, vain, mean person reading and appreciating Emerson? Think of the
real men of science, the great geologists and astronomers, one opening
up time, the other space! Shall mere intellectual acumen be accredited
with these immense results? What noble pride, self-reliance, and
continuity of character underlie Newton's deductions!

Only those books are for the making of men into which a man has gone in
the making. Mere professional skill and sleight of hand, of themselves,
are to be apprized as lightly in letters as in war or in government,
or in any kind of leadership. Strong native qualities only avail in the
long run; and the more these dominate over the artificial endow