Untrained genius is a terrible waste of power.

So many people seem to think that if they have a spark of genius they can do without culture; while really it is because they have a spark of genius that they ought to be, and are worthy to be, cultivated to the highest point." "Well, anyway--culture or no culture--I mean to set the Thames on fire some day." "You do, do you?
Well, it is a laudable and not uncommon ambition." "Yes, I do; and you mustn't look so doubtful on the subject, as it isn't pretty manners." "Did I look doubtful?
I'm very sorry." "Horribly so.

I know exactly what you will do, you are so shockingly matter-of-fact.

First you will prove to a demonstration that it is utterly impossible for such an inferior being as a woman to set the Thames on fire at all.

Then--when I've done it and London is illuminated--you will write to the papers to show that the 'flash-point' of the river is decidedly too low, or else such an unlooked-for catastrophe could never have occurred.