r his mathematical ability, and I asked
him what he thought was the difficulty in the minds that are weak in that
particular direction, while they may be of remarkable force in other
provinces of thought, as is notoriously the case with some men of great
distinction in science.

The young man smiled and wrote a few letters and symbols on a piece of
paper.---Can you see through that at once?--he said.

I puzzled over it for some minutes and gave it up.

--He said, as I returned it to him, You have heard military men say that
such a person had an eye for country, have n't you? One man will note
all the landmarks, keep the points of compass in his head, observe how
the streams run, in short, carry a map in his brain of any region that he
has marched or galloped through. Another man takes no note of any of
these things; always follows somebody else's lead when he can, and gets
lost if he is left to himself; a mere owl in daylight. Just so some men
have an eye for an equation, and would read at sight the one that you
puzzled over. It is told of Sir Isaac Newton that he required no
demonstration of the propositions in Euclid's Geometry, but as soon as he
had read the enunciation the solution or answer was plain at once. The
power may be cultivated, but I think it is to a great degree a natural
gift, as is the eye for color, as is the ear for music.

--I think I could read equations readily enough,--I said,--if I could
only keep my attention fixed on them; and I think I could keep my
attention on them if I were imprisoned in a thinking-cell, such as the
Creative Intelligence shapes for its studio when at its divinest work.

The young man's lustrous eyes opened very widely as he asked me to
explain what I meant.

--What is the Creator's divinest work?--I asked.

--Is there anything more divine than the sun; than a sun with its planets
revolving about it, warming them, lighting them, and giving conscious
life to the beings that move on them?

--You agree, then, that conscious life is the grand aim and end of all
this vast mechanism. Without life that could feel and enjoy, the
splendors and creative energy would all be thrown away. You know
Harvey's saying, omnia animalia ex ovo,--all animals come from an egg.
You ought to know it, for the great controversy going on about
spontaneous generation has brought it into special prominence lately.
Well, then, the ovum, the egg, is, to speak in human phrase, the
Creator's