" And
then, after explaining some highly technical detail, he will add:
"Of course this seems to you very minute, but it is work that has
got to be done by some one; it is only laying a little stone in the
temple of science. Of course I often feel I should like to spread
my wings and take a wider flight, but I do seem to have a special
faculty for this kind of work, and I suppose it is my duty to stick
to it." And he will pass his hand wearily over his brow, and
expound another technical detail. He apologises ceaselessly for
dwelling on his own work; but in no place or company have I ever
heard him do otherwise; and he is certainly one of the happiest
people I know.
But, on the other hand, it is a rather charming quality to find in
combination with a certain balance of mind. Unless a man is
interesting to himself he cannot easily be interesting to others;
there is a youthful and ingenuous sense of romance and drama which
can exist side by side with both modesty and sympathy, somewhat
akin to the habit common to imaginative children of telling
themselves long stories in which they are the heroes of the tale.
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