His intuitive faculties were highly developed, and he had Goethe's
"heavenly gift" of imagination, but this would have been as nothing
without his power of concentration. All his abilities were focused on
his art. He made everything else subservient to the one idea of
attaining perfection in it. He succeeded too, by giving his genius free
play, by allowing his individuality to shape itself in accordance with
its own laws. The circumstances of his life favored this action.
Responsible to no one for years before reaching maturity, he was nowhere
hampered or repressed as might have been the case had he had a home
life. Strong characters are best left alone to work out their own
development. It is only the weak ones that have to be supported. He met
every demand that his art made on him. It was only by a complete
surrender, by a concentration of all his forces into one channel, that
he attained his results. By losing the world, he gained it. The great
ones in every age, in every art or calling,--those who attained to
saintship,--seers,--prophets,--all went this road.
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