Some men of genius do, indeed, make their way in spite of adverse circumstances, forcing themselves out of the obscurity of their surroundings: they 'break their birth's invidious bar, and breast the blows of circumstance, and grasp the skirts of happy chance.' That is to say some sorts of genius are united with qualities of audacity, persistence, and luck, which enable them to win 'through'.But how many men of genius do not possess these faculties and therefore do not emerge, it is from the nature of the case impossible to learn.But it is probable that much genius, talent, and ability, capable of yielding fine social service, is lost.Indeed it is probable that many of the finest human variations, involving unusual delicacy of feeling and perhaps of physique, will by natural necessity be incapacitated for making their way and forcing recognition amid uncongenial surroundings.
It is likely that far more human genius is lost than is saved, even in the more civilised nations of to-day.For what are the conditions of the successful utilisation of genius, and for what proportion of the population are they securely attained?
Leisure is a first condition for all free and fruitful play of the mind.Very few inventions have come from workers compelled to keep their noses to the grindstone, and unable to let their eyes and thoughts play freely round the nature of their work.This is why slavery contributed so very little to the development of the industrial arts: this is why so comparatively few inventions of importance have been made by hired labourers in this and other countries.The strongest economic plea for a shorter and a lighter working-day is that it will liberate for invention and industrial progress the latent creative energy of countless workers that is stifled under.the conditions of a long day's monotonous toil.
Education is the next condition.The great mass of the population in this country have no such opportunity of education as is needed to discover, stimulate, and nourish the creative faculties in art, science, and industrial invention.One need not overrate what even the best education can do for human talent of the creative order.Indeed, the education of the schools may sometimes rather injure than improve the finest faculties.But education can do one incomparable service to native genius or talent.By putting the sensitive mind of a young man or woman in contact with the innumerable waves of thought astir in the intellectual atmosphere around, it supplies the first essential of all creative activity, the fruitful union of two thoughts.Until all the new minds brought into the world are placed in such free contact with every fertilising current of thought and feeling, and enjoy free, full opportunities of knowing the best that has been thought and said in all departments of human knowledge, we cannot tell how much creative faculty perishes for lack of necessary nutriment.
§6.From artistic and inventive work which is essentially creative, enjoyable, vitally serviceable and costless, we proceed to review the regular skilled mental work of the professional and administrative classes.
The bulk of the productive energy classed as Ability comes under these heads.
It is evident that in most of this work the creative quality is blended in various degrees with imitation or routine.We pass from the more miraculous, interesting, and rapid modes of productive achievement to a lower level, where the expenditure of time and effort is greater and where the terms 'practice' and 'practitioner' themselves attest the more confined nature of the activities.There can be no doubt that the practice of law or medicine, even in its highest walks, involves a good deal of toilsome and almost mechanical routine, though the most successful practitioners generally shift the bulk of this burden on to the lower grades of the profession.
The practice called 'devilling' in the law illustrates my meaning.
But every profession has its lower grades of routine workers, assistants, dispensers, nurses, clerks and others, whose sphere of liberty is closely circumscribed, and whose work, although involving some qualities of personal skill and responsibility, mainly consists in carrying out orders.
This consideration of the subsidiary professional services brings to light, however, a certain defect in the use of the antithesis between creation and imitation, regarded as an index of humanly desirable and humanly undesirable work.
Mere repetition or close routine is not the distinctive character of much of this work.The work of a private secretary, clerk, or other subordinate to a professional man or a high official, may contain much variety and novelty in detail or even in kind.The same may be true of the work of a valet or other personal attendant.It applies to all work which consists in carrying out another's orders.There may be plenty of variety and scope for skill in such work; in its initial stage, as conceived by the chief or employer, it may contain elements of creative energy.But the subordinate does not reap these elements of personal interest because the initiation of the process does not rest with him.The essentials of the work are imposed upon him by the intellect and will of another: neither the design nor the mode of execution is his own.Though, therefore, his work may not consist in mere routine, but may be widely varied, the fact that it is not properly 'his' work, the expression of 'his' personality, deprives it of all qualities of creation or achievement, save such fragments as adhere to the details that are 'left to him.' Such work may, indeed, be described as imitative, in that it consists in executing a design prescribed to him by another.
