So much for the external, fortuitous factor; its rôle is clear. That of the internal factor is less so. It is not at all apparent to the ordinary mind, escaping the unreflecting. Yet it is extremely important. The same fortuitous event passes by millions of men without exciting anything. How many of Pisa's inhabitants had seen the lamp of their cathedral before Galileo! He does not necessarily find who wants to find. The happy chance comes only to those worthy of it. In order to profit thereby, one must first possess the spirit of observation, wide-awake attention, that isolates and fixates the accident; then, if it is a matter of scientific or practical inventions, the penetration that seizes upon relations and finds unforeseen resemblances; if it concerns esthetic productions, the imagination that constructs, organizes, gives life.
Without repeating an evident truism, although it is often misunderstood, we ought to end by remarking that chance is an occasion for, not an agent of, creation.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] See above, [Chapter II].
[66] Some of these and the following figures are borrowed from Oelzelt-Newin, op. cit., pp. 70 ff.
[67] Compare the well-known theory of Dr. Hughlings-Jackson. (Tr.)
[68] For an elaborate and interesting discussion of this subject, see Tolstoi's Physiology of War. As showing the later trend of thought on this general theme, see the excellent summary by Professor Seligman, The Economic Interpretation of History. (Tr.)
[69] William James, The Will to Believe and other Essays, pp. 218 ff.; Jastrow, Psych. Rev., May, 1898, p. 307; J. Royce, ibid., March, 1898; Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, etc.
[70] Joly, Psychologie des grands hommes.
[71] Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin.