ost complete satisfaction
of this desire if he can make or construct something--be it a book or
a basket. There is a direct pleasure in seeing work grow under one's
hands day by day, until at last it is finished. This is the pleasure
attaching to a work of art or a manuscript, or even mere manual labor;
and, of course, the higher the work, the greater pleasure it will
give.

From this point of view, those are happiest of all who are conscious
of the power to produce great works animated by some significant
purpose: it gives a higher kind of interest--a sort of rare flavor--to
the whole of their life, which, by its absence from the life of the
ordinary man, makes it, in comparison, something very insipid. For
richly endowed natures, life and the world have a special interest
beyond the mere everyday personal interest which so many others share;
and something higher than that--a formal interest. It is from life and
the world that they get the material for their works; and as soon
as they are freed from the pressure of personal needs, it is to
the diligent collection of material that they devote their whole
existence. So with their intellect: it is to some extent of a two-fold
character, and devoted partly to the ordinary affairs of every
day--those matters of will which are common to them and the rest of
mankind, and partly to their peculiar work--the pure and objective
contemplation of existence. And while, on the stage of the world, most
men play their little part and then pass away, the genius lives a
double life, at once an actor and a spectator.

Let everyone, then, do something, according to the measure of his
capacities. To have no regular work, no set sphere of activity--what a
miserable thing it is! How often long travels undertaken for pleasure
make a man downright unhappy; because the absence of anything that can
be called occupation forces him, as it were, out of his right element.
Effort, struggles with difficulties! that is as natural to a man as
grubbing in the ground is to a mole. To have all his wants satisfied
is something intolerable--the feeling of stagnation which comes
from pleasures that last too long. To overcome difficulties is
to experience the full delight of existence, no matter where the
obstacles are encountered; whether in the affairs of life, in commerce
or business; or in mental effort--the spirit of inquiry that tries
to master its subject. There is always something pleasurable in the