IN defining the three stages of growth through which mortal mind must pass, Mrs. Eddy, in her article "The Way" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 356), says: "The second stage of mental development is humility. This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of Christian Science." The Standard dictionary defines genius as "exalted intellectual power, capable of operating independently of tuition and training, and marked by an extraordinary faculty for original creation, interpretation, expression, invention, discovery, production, or achievement."
This definition of genius as a product of the human intellect having within itself original creative power, has been generally accepted by the world, and great geniuses are supposed to be humanly born. Well does the writer remember her almost worshipful admiration of genius, perhaps more especially expressed in the realm of literature, looking upon these great men and women as the most favored of earth's children, having come to us possibly through some long line of intellectual ancestry. Well also does she remember when the light from Mrs. Eddy's statements in "Miscellaneous Writings" as quoted above, broke the limitation of human definition, and genius was revealed as a gift of God, bestowed upon all, but to be attained humanly through self-immolation, whereby we might spiritually hear and know the things of God.
As we examine the lives of great men and women in the light of this truer definition of genius, we readily see in greater or less degree this same quality of selflessness as the secret of their greatness,—self lost sight of in the contemplation of the largeness of their message; and we love them not less, but rather more, for what they are, as we recognize to what degree they have served as transparencies for light and joy to the world, and better understand why their names have become immortalized in the hearts of men.
