and the isochronism of the pendulum was the beginning of the
measurement of time for all men, and of the measurement of worlds for
the astronomer.

How simple, too, is the story of Newton, who felt an apple fall upon
him as he lay under a tree, and thought to himself: "Why did that
apple fall?" Such was the simple origin of the theory of the gravity
of bodies, and that of universal gravitation.

When we study of the life of Papin, we marvel at the culture which
placed him on a level with the most learned men of his times: as
physician, physiologist, and mathematician, he was distinguished and
honored by the universities of England and Germany. Nevertheless, what
gave him his value to humanity, and hence his greatness, was the fact
that his attention had been arrested by the sight of the lid of a
saucepan of boiling water raised by the steam. "Steam is a force which
could lift a piston as it lifts the cover of a saucepan, and become
the motor power of a machine." Papin's famous saucepan is a kind of
magic wand in the history of mankind, which thenceforth began to work
and travel without fatigue. How wonderful are such stories of great
discoveries arising from humble beginnings, and working miracles
throughout the world!

These, in their origins, resemble those living creatures, born of two
imperceptible microscopic cells, the fusion of which inevitably tends
to the creation of complex lives. To perceive exactly and to connect
the things perceived logically is the work of the highest
intelligence. But this work is characterized by a peculiar power of
attention, which causes the mind to dwell upon a subject in a species
of meditation, the characteristic mark of genius; the outcome is an
internal life _rich in activities_, just as the germinative cells are
the fruit of internal existences. It would seem that such mentalities
are distinguished from those of the ordinary type, not by their form,
but by their "force." It is the vigorous life from which those two
small intellectual sparks arise, which makes them so marvelous. If
they had not sprung from strong, independent personalities, capable of
persistent effort and heroic self-sacrifice, those little intellectual
works would have remained as things inert and negligible. Hence all
that strengthens the spiritual man may lead him in the footsteps of
the genius.

Thus, as regards the intelligence in itself, the work it has to
accomplish is a small matter, but it is clea