illity came, and then he said that God had only given force to his
mind for a limited time, and that the time was past. Therefore, as
Sainte-Beuve observed, for Joubert there was no medium; either it was
not yet time, or else the time was past.

Nothing is more common than for _other_ people to say this of us. They
often say "He is too young," as Napoleon said of Ingres, or else "He is
too old," as Napoleon said of Greuze. It is more rare for a man himself
to shrink from every enterprise, first under the persuasion that he is
unprepared, and afterwards because the time is no longer opportune. Yet
there does exist a certain very peculiar class of highly-gifted,
diffident, delicate, unproductive minds, which impress those around them
with an almost superstitious belief in their possibilities, yet never do
anything to justify that belief.

But may it not be doubted whether these minds _have_ productive power of
any kind? I believe that the full extent of Joubert's productive power
is displayed in those sentences of his which have been preserved, and
which reveal a genius of the rarest delicacy, but at the same time
singularly incapable of sustained intellectual effort. He said that he
could only compose slowly, and with an extreme fatigue. He believed,
however, that the weakness lay in the instrument alone, in the composing
faculties, and not in the faculties of thought, for he said that behind
his weakness there was strength, as behind the strength of some others
there was weakness.

In saying this, it is probable that Joubert did not overestimate
himself. He _had_ strength of a certain kind, or rather he had quality;
he had distinction, which is a sort of strength in society and in
literature. But he had no productive force, and I do not believe that
his unproductiveness was a productiveness checked by a fastidious taste;
I believe that it was real, that he was not organized for production.

Sainte-Beuve said that a modern philosopher was accustomed to
distinguish three classes of minds--

1. Those who are at once powerful and delicate, who excel as they
propose, execute what they conceive, and reach the great and true
beautiful--a rare _elite_ amongst mortals.

2. A class of minds especially characterized by their delicacy, who feel
that their idea is superior to their execution, their intelligence
greater than their talent, even when the talent is very real; they are
easily dissatisfied with themselves, disdain e