Genius Is Subject To The Same Laws

The Study Of The Properties Of Numbers, Plato Tells Us, Habituates The Mind To The Contemplation Of Pure Truth, And Raises Us Above The Material Universe. He Would Have His Disciples Apply Themselves To This Study, Not That They May Be Able To Buy Or Sell, Not That They May Qualify Themselves To Be Shopkeepers Or Travelling Merchants, But That They May Learn To Withdraw Their Minds From The Ever-shifting Spectacle Of This Visible And Tangible World, And To Fix Them On The Immutable Essences Of Things.

The Hearts Of Men Are Their Books; Events Are Their Tutors; Great Actions Are Their Eloquence.

None Of The Modes By Which A Magistrate Is Appointed, Popular Election, The Accident Of The Lot, Or The Accident Of Birth, Affords, As Far As We Can Perceive, Much Security For His Being Wiser Than Any Of His Neighbours. The Chance Of His Being Wiser Than All His Neighbours Together Is Still Smaller.

How It Chanced That A Man Who Reasoned On His Premises So Ably, Should Assume His Premises So Foolishly, Is One Of The Great Mysteries Of Human Nature.

And How Can Man Die Better Than Facing Fearful Odds, For The Ashes Of His Fathers, And The Temples Of His Gods?