The period of growth of any organism is the most interesting and most instructive.

And there is no moment of growth in the individual life which can be compared in importance with the moment when a man begins to outtop his age, and to suggest the future evolution of humanity by his own genius.

Usually this final stage is passed in solitude: _Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,_ _Sich ein Charakter in dem Strome der Welt._ After writing a life of Schiller which almost anyone might have written, Carlyle retired for some years to Craigenputtoch, and then brought forth _Sartor Resartus_, which was personal and soul-revealing to the verge of eccentricity.

In the same way Wagner was a mere continuator of Weber in _Lohengrin_ and _Tannhaeuser_, and first came to his own in the _Meistersinger_ and _Tristan_, after years of meditation in Switzerland.
This period for Oscar Wilde began with his marriage; the freedom from sordid anxieties allowed him to lift up his head and be himself.
Kepler, I think, it is who praises poverty as the foster-mother of genius; but Bernard Palissy was nearer the truth when he said:--_Pauvrete empeche bons esprits de parvenir_ (poverty hinders fine minds from succeeding).

There is no such mortal enemy of genius as poverty except riches: a touch of the spur from time to time does good; but a constant rowelling disables.