Development of ideas

I am going to speak of the necessity of gathering diverse elements of the Spirit in order to form a whole. It is a common illusion to believe that a special aptitude, in order to develop, needs only a special study. No. The human Spirit, like a river, swells with all its tributaries. Man must not isolate himself in his work, that is, by the most opposite contrasts he must cause the sap of ideas to spring forth. Originality is the contrast of mother-ideas; it is one of the rarest superiorities. From infancy it is stifled by the absurd rule that lowers all Spirits to the same level. I am going to explain my idea. Thilorier, whom you have just evoked, was an impassioned inventor, an active intelligence; but he had confined himself to the sphere of invention, that is, to the fixed idea. He never posted himself at the window to watch the ideas of others pass by; thus, he remained a prisoner of his own mind. Genius floated around him, but, finding all the exits closed, it let madness, its sister, penetrate and invade the place so well guarded. And Thilorier, who would have left an immortal name, lives only in the memory of a few learned men. GEORGES. (Familiar Spirit.)