ss of mortality, but the strength of
divinity, which we have to recognize in all mighty things; and that is
just what we now _never_ recognize, but think that we are to do great
things, by help of iron bars and perspiration:--alas! we shall do
nothing that way but lose some pounds of our own weight.

171. Yet let me not be misunderstood, nor this great truth be supposed
anywise resolvable into the favorite dogma of young men, that they need
not work if they have genius. The fact is that a man of genius is always
far more ready to work than other people, and gets so much more good
from the work that he does, and is often so little conscious of the
inherent divinity in himself, that he is very apt to ascribe all his
capacity to his work, and to tell those who ask how he came to be what
he is: "If I _am_ anything, which I much doubt, I made myself so merely
by labor." This was Newton's way of talking, and I suppose it would be
the general tone of men whose genius had been devoted to the physical
sciences. Genius in the Arts must commonly be more self-conscious, but
in whatever field, it will always be distinguished by its perpetual,
steady, well-directed, happy, and faithful labor in accumulating and
disciplining its powers, as well as by its gigantic, incommunicable
facility in exercising them. Therefore, literally, it is no man's
business whether he has genius or not: work he must, whatever he is, but
quietly and steadily; and the natural and unforced results of such work
will be always the things that God meant him to do, and will be his
best. No agonies nor heart-rendings will enable him to do any better. If
he be a great man, they will be great things; if a small man, small
things; but always, if thus peacefully done, good and right; always, if
restlessly and ambitiously done, false, hollow, and despicable.

172. Then the third thing needed was, I said, that a man should be a
good judge of his work; and this chiefly that he may not be dependent
upon popular opinion for the manner of doing it, but also that he may
have the just encouragement of the sense of progress, and an honest
consciousness of victory; how else can he become

"That awful independent on to-morrow,
Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile "?

I am persuaded that the real nourishment and help of such a feeling as
this is nearly unknown to half the workmen of the present day. For
whatever appearance of self-complacency there may be in thei