In the present age there seems to be a tendency to believe that the importance of individual genius is less than it was—
“The individual withers, and the world is more and more.”
Society, it is supposed, has now assumed so highly developed a form, that what was accomplished in past times by the solitary exertions of a great intellect, may now be worked out by the united labours of an army of investigators. Just as the well-organised power of a modern army supersedes the single-handed bravery of the mediæval knights, so we are to believe that the combination of intellectual labour has superseded the genius of an Archimedes, a Newton, or a Laplace. So-called original research is now regarded as a profession, adopted by hundreds of men, and communicated by a system of training. All that we need to secure additions to our knowledge of nature is the erection of great laboratories, museums, and observatories, and the offering of pecuniary rewards to those who can invent new chemical compounds, detect new species, or discover new comets. Doubtless this is not the real meaning of the eminent men who are now urging upon Government the endowment of physical research. They can only mean that the greater the pecuniary and material assistance given to men of science, the greater the result which the available genius of the country may be expected to produce. Money and opportunities of study can no more produce genius than sunshine and moisture can generate living beings; the inexplicable germ is wanting in both cases. But as, when the germ is present, the plant will grow more or less vigorously according to the circumstances in which it is placed, so it may be allowed that pecuniary assistance may favour development of intellect. Public opinion however is not discriminating, and is likely to interpret the agitation for the endowment of science as meaning that science can be had for money.
All such notions are erroneous. In no branch of human affairs, neither in politics, war, literature, industry, nor science, is the influence of genius less considerable than it was. It is possible that the extension and organisation of scientific study, assisted by the printing-press and the accelerated means of communication, has increased the rapidity with which new discoveries are made known, and their details worked out by many heads and hands. A Darwin now no sooner propounds original ideas concerning the evolution of living creatures, than those ideas are discussed and illustrated, and applied by naturalists in every part of the world. In former days his discoveries would have been hidden for decades of years in scarce manuscripts, and generations would have passed away before his theory had enjoyed the same amount of criticism and corroboration as it has already received. The result is that the genius of Darwin is more valuable, not less valuable, than it would formerly have been. The advance of military science and the organisation of enormous armies has not decreased the value of a skilful general; on the contrary, the rank and file are still more in need than they used to be of the guiding power of a far-seeing intellect. The swift destruction of the French military power was not due alone to the perfection of the German army, nor to the genius of Moltke; it was due to the combination of a well-disciplined multitude with a leader of the highest powers. So in every branch of human affairs the influence of the individual is not withering, but is growing with the extent of the material resources which are at his command.