Yet of how many great men can this be said? As a rule,
indeed, a great man's best work has been done in solitude and
disfavour, and he has attained his sunshine when he can no longer
do his best work.
The question is whether the modern conditions of life are
unfavourable to greatness; and I think that it must be confessed
that they are. In the first place, we all know so much too about
each other, and there is so eager a personal curiosity abroad, a
curiosity about the smallest details of the life of any one who
seems to have any power of performance, that it encourages men to
over-confidence, egotism, and mannerism. Again, the world is so
much in love with novelty and sensation of all kinds, that facile
successes are easily made and as easily obliterated. What so many
people admire is not greatness, but the realisation of greatness
and its tangible rewards. The result of this is that men who show
any faculty for impressing the world are exploited and caressed,
are played with as a toy, and as a toy neglected. And then, too,
the age is deeply permeated by social ambitions.
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