Of all earthly good and evil, nothing so much affects man, nothing stirs him so deeply, and by nothing is he so violently and passionately tossed about between hope and fear, as by good and evil in relation to the other sex.

Another beautiful feature of the myth is that not until man was driven out of Paradise did he learn what the stern drudgery of work meant. The godlike man, full of productive thoughts, knows nothing of the hard compulsion to work; for what he does, he does with a happy heart, in the service of an idea, in full devotion to the object before him. Therefore work to him is enjoyment even when it gives him much trouble and he has to take the greatest pains with it. He is in a state of paradise, beyond what seems to the egoist good and evil, and knows only the happiness of hastening forward towards his goal. The man, on the contrary, who is driven out of paradise, far from the divine Presence, guided in his actions by no creative idea and knowing nothing of true devotion, this man learns what the drudgery of work is, since his heart is not in it and he works under compulsion. It is to him therefore, to the man who has sunk nearer to the beasts of the fields and is now only a breathing piece of clay influenced by petty, earthly ways of thought, to him who after a life passed in the dust, shall return again to the dust from which he came, that the Lord God in the myth says: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Whoever, on the other hand, sensates, thinks and acts in the creative spirit of the genius and with the genius' love and complete devotion to the matter in hand, works himself out of the animal state; he has put himself beyond the egotistical view of good and evil, beyond the influence of hope and fear, and has, therefore, risen again to the Presence of God, to the state of paradise where man is no longer a miserable earthworm crawling in the dust, but, as a man of genius, enjoys the fellowship and friendship of God the Creator.

The child, too, whose nature is so nearly related to that of the man of genius, is in a state of paradise. Of children Christ said to His disciples: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven;" and Heraclitus compared creative Omnipotence to a child at play. In the Fall of Man, that is, by the loss of God's presence, is symbolised also the change which takes place in a man's nature when he ceases to be a child at play and begins to lose himself in the world with its self-seeking knowledge of good and evil. 1

Spinoza states: "If men were born free, they would form no conception of good and evil so long as they were free... This (together with the other things we have before demonstrated) appears to have been what was meant by Moses in that history of the first man... we are told that God forbade free man to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and warned him that as soon as he ate of it he would immediately dread death rather than desire to live. Afterwards we are told that when man found a wife who agreed entirely with his nature, he saw that there could be nothing in nature which could be more profitable to him than his wife. But when he came to 1 Cp. pp. 56-61.

believe that the brutes were like himself, he immediately began to imitate their affects, and to lose his liberty, which the Patriarchs afterwards recovered, being led by the spirit of Christ, that is to say, by the idea of God, which alone can make a man free, and cause him to desire for other men the good he desires for himself."1

All productivity, which is of a sound creative nature, is intimately connected with true freedom, that is, with freedom from the irresistible attraction and repulsion of earthly good and evil, and from tempting hope and paralysing fear connected with them. Let us conclude with the words of Meister Eckehart: "Whoever attaches himself to God, to him will God attach Himself and all that is excellent... The more thou keepest thyself free, the more enlightenment, truth and wisdom will fall to thy share... For as soon as God has touched the depths of thy soul with his truth, the light is thrown into thy powers too, and then a man can do more in one moment than anyone could teach him." 2

1 Ethic. Translated by W. H. White; translation revised by A. H. Stirling 4th ed., 1910, pp. 235, 236. "Si homines liberi nascerentur, nullum boni et mali formarent conceptum, quamdiu liberi essent... Atque hoc et alia, quae jam demonstravimus, videntur a Mose significari in illa primi hominis historia... atque eatenus narratur, quod Deus homini libero prohibuerit, ne de arbore cognitionis boni et mali comederet et quod, simulac de ea comederet, statim mortem metueret potius, quam vivere cuperet. Deinde, quod inventa ab homine uxore, quae cum sua natura prorsus conveniebat, cognovit nihil posse in natura dari, quod ipsi posset illa esse utilius; sed quod, postquam bruta sibi similia esse credidit, statim eorum affectus imitari inceperit, et libertatem suam amittere, quam Patriarchae postea recuperaverunt, ducti Spiritu Christi, hoc est, Dei idea, a qua sola pendet, ut homo liber sit et ut bonum, quod sibi cupit, reliquis hominibus cupiat."

2 Meister Eckeharts Schriften und Predigten. Aus dem Mittelhochdeutschen übersetzt und herausgegeben von Hermann Büttner, 1903-09, vol. II, p. 6; vol. I, pp. 47, 48: "Wer sich an Gott hängt, dem hängt Gott sich an und alles Tüchtige... Denn sobald Gott den Grund mit seiner Wahrheit innerlich berührt, so wirft sich das Licht auch in die Kräfte, und der Mensch kann im Augenblicke mehr, als ihn irgend jemand zu lehren vermöchte."

XIII.

CONCLUSION

GENIUS has been defined in the most various ways. These definitions are usually based on a correct idea which it is not difficult to bring into harmony with our description of genius. For instance, when genius is characterised as diligence or as patience. In general, diligence is the distinguishing mark of less gifted natures. We have only to think of the diligence and the inexhaustible patience of the Chinaman as compared with the repugnance with which, generally speaking, an Englishman gives himself to any monotonous and laborious occupation. The truth is that man at the lower stage of mental development shows an instinctive, animal, uniform industry, whereas the man of genius displays energetic and restless activity only when stirred by a creative idea, an activity which at times may be interrupted by an extreme devotion to the pleasures of life, or by periods of complete inactivity. When the carrying out of an idea, the offspring of his own mind, is involved, the man of genius is, indeed, capable of displaying the most untiring diligence, but in the service of others, he often appears lamed and deprived of will and energy. When the spirit moves him, and his love for the object before him, his deepened interest are awakened, his diligence even surpasses that of the most industrious coolie. When this deepened, ideal interest is

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absent, his attitude can be one of blunt aloofness. Hence diligence is in the man of genius only an accessory, not an essential characteristic such as would make us picture him as being constantly and busily at work. Certainly no busier, more patient man, or one who treats the matter in hand with greater love can be imagined than a genius striving for the realisation of his ideas. But there is also no man more impatient, none who more violently breaks all fetters, or, under certain circumstances, offers greater resistance and displays stronger repugnance to every form of occupation, than a genius who has to bend under the yoke imposed on him by another, or who, when he is exhausted, finds himself forsaken by his ideas.

It has also been said that genius consists in the capability of grasping what is essential in all things. This also is correct. But again, that which enables genius to do so is the deepened interest, the love of the object, of the thing itself, the objective, disinterested spirit. For to none other than a genius do the essential qualities, the peculiar nature of the object, the true character and properties of things show themselves. He whose only desire is to be the main point himself and who only looks subjectively and selfishly at everything, will have no respect for the object and its essential character, for "the actual," the "factum brutum," and will rather shut his eyes and deceive himself should the "rude fact" wound his selfish feelings. He is blind with seeing eyes. There is no sharper contrast than that between Nietzsche's statement that the actual, the "factum brutum" is to be "interpreted, forced, suppressed, and falsified," and the plain and simple recognition of "the actual" on the part of Napoleon and other men of true genius.

Nietzsche significantly calls the distinguishing property of genius, namely, the grasping of the essential, the