M
member 2106
Guest
"The ordinary man places his life's happiness in things external to him, in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society, and the like, so when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed. In other words, his centre of gravity is not in himself... let us compare with this common type the man who comes midway... endowed, it may be, not exactly with distinguished powers of mind, but with somewhat more than the ordinary amount of intellect. He will take a dilettante interest in art, or devote his interest to some branch of science...and find a great deal of pleasure in such studies, and amuse himself with them when external sources of happiness are exhausted or fail to satisfy him anymore...an amateur pursuit of science is apt to be superficial and not to penetrate to the heart of the matter... It is only the highest intellectual power, what we call genius, that attains to this degree of intensity, making all time and existence its theme, and striving to express its peculiar conception of the world, whether it contemplates life as the subject of poetry or of philosophy. Hence, undisturbed occupation with himself, his own thoughts and works, is a matter of urgent necessity to such a man; solitude is welcome, leisure the highest good, and everything else is unnecessary, nay, even burdensome."