He who first shortened the labor of Copyists by device of Movable Types was disbanding hired Armies and cashiering most Kings and Senates and creating a whole new Democratic world: he had invented the Art of printing.
As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden,—“Speech is silvern, Silence is golden;” or, as I might rather express it, Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time: the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Man of Letters.
Note 1. Buffon says:—“La génie n’est autre chose qu’une grande aptitude à la patience. (Genius is nothing else than a great aptitude for patience).” There is also a popular proverb: “Genius is patience.” See also Disraeli, p. 627: “Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.” See Leslie Stephen: “Genius is a capacity for taking trouble.” Jan Walæus also says: “Genius is an intuitive talent for labor.” [back]
