For their very nature is to make the whole of existence
their problem; and this is a subject upon which they will every one of
them in some form provide mankind with a new revelation. For he alone
can deserve the name of genius who takes the All, the Essential, the
Universal, for the theme of his achievements; not he who spends his
life in explaining some special relation of things one to another.
ON THINKING FOR ONESELF.
A library may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so
useful as one that is small but well arranged. In the same way, a man
may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up
by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far
smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. For it is only when a
man looks at his knowledge from all sides, and combines the things he
knows by comparing truth with truth, that he obtains a complete hold
over it and gets it into his power. A man cannot turn over anything in
his mind unless he knows it; he should, therefore, learn something;
but it is only when he has turned it over that he can be said to know
it.
Reading and learning are things that anyone can do of his own free
will; but not so _thinking_. Thinking must be kindled, like a fire
by a draught; it must be sustained by some interest in the matter
in hand.
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