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of a new idea or ideas into the mind; the return of something which the memory had struggled for in vain; the instant presence of a fortunate conception completing an invention. These facts are plainer to us as ultimate facts, as successful efforts of mind, allied to that by which we correctly articulate a sound we have long striven to no purpose to utter, than they are when burdened with facts of cerebration whose very being is conjectural, and whose mode of operation is unintelligible. A subject is not explained by two difficulties.

Still less proof is there in the inventive moods of genius, the unusual power that falls to the mind on one occasion and deserts it on another. The periods between these hours of advantage are often very irregular, and may have little to do with the direction in which the thoughts have been tending. They are preceded by no indications of an unconscious cerebration, but more frequently follow upon lassitude, indolence, restfulness, passing again into activity. Careful preparation sometimes fails of its object, and an inventive flow will at another time be present to the speaker or writer independently of previous effort. These shifting moods of mind are partially explicable by physical fatigue or vigor; but involve many conditions not traceable to uniform causes. The mind, if not capricious, takes up and lays down its strength in a way often too subtile for our analysis. Invention remains invention, a quick putting forth of power, sometimes from restful energy, sometimes from irritable force. Observation lends no support to the doctrine that there is a slow unconscious accumulation of thought-products in the brain, which, like waters in an intermittent fountain, are suddenly poured forth. The mind, like the will, has reserved force by which it can achieve great and sudden results, and these, too, in unexpected directions.