of their own, each investigating as he is impelled by his own genius.
That is very well for a time; the youth of genius should find out for himself what is the direction in which he is impelled to go. But before he offers his gift on the National Altar, before he can really contribute to the general store of Knowledge, he must pull himself into line with general progress. How shall he do this?
The advice usually given is, to conform to the general custom, submit to the orthodox authorities. But there is a better way. The normal to any tangent leads towards the centre of equipoise, of balance, of calm progress; the spot where is concentrated the maximum of force with the minimum expenditure of force in mere useless motion.
But how can any man find certainly the true normal to his own tangential direction, the path which will guide his own peculiar genius towards the centre of progress and of power?
The direction given by the diagram is emphatic and unmistakable. He should look out for the brother ex-centric who most especially "offends" him, who is going on what seems to him to be most obviously and certainly the wrong road, because it leads in the opposite direction to what he is sure is, for him, the path of inspiration. Let him unify with that brother, call out to that brother to meet him and join hands. When these two meet, they will be in the centre of calm force. This conversion into the normal is the second birth of genius, the Regeneration which converts mere inspiration into Revelation; for inspiration is at best partial;
