d have given us
new sources of well-being and social progress, we shall have to admit
that in themselves they cannot be described as extraordinary
processes, inaccessible to mediocrity. "Genius coincides with the
possession in a very high degree of the power of association by
similarity. This is the essential quality of genius," says Bain. Even
at the "central point" of discovery, it is only by accurate
observation and a very simple process of reasoning, of which most
persons would consider themselves capable, that the discovery is made.
At most it is due to a marshalling of "evidences" which, however,
passed unnoticed by all but the discoverer.

We may say that genius has the faculty of isolating a fact in the
consciousness, and of so distinguishing it from all others that it is
as if a single ray of light should fall upon a diamond in a dark room.
This single idea, then, causes a complete revolution in the
consciousness, and is capable of constructing something infinitely
great and precious for all humanity.

But it is the intense significance of ordinary things, and not the
abnormal, which is the main factor; it is the isolation in a
homogeneous field, not the intrinsic value of the thing, which
determines the marvelous phenomenon. Perhaps within countless
thousands of chaotic perceptions the gem had existed, stored up amidst
a multitude of useless and cumbrous objects, and had never succeeded
in arresting attention; meanwhile inertia continued to allow new
objects to penetrate continually within the distended and impotent
walls. After a discovery, many will perceive that they themselves held
the same truth within them; but in this case it is not the truth
itself that has value, but the man who is capable of appreciating it
and bringing it into relation with action.

But very often it is not the case that the newly discovered truth
already exists in the chaos of obscure consciousness; and then the new
light, simple though it be, can find no way by which to penetrate into
the mind.

It is rejected as something strange and fallacious; and a certain
lapse of time is necessary, a certain coordination of the
intelligence, to enable the "novelty" to enter. Yet some day it will
be considered clear as crystal. It was not the "nature" of man which
shrank from it, but his "errors." These errors not only make man
incapable of production, but are in themselves hostile to receptivity.
Thus it often happens that the pioneers