114/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

Some men of genius underestimate their creations, while others overestimate theirs. In Art, as in Nature, the deeper Self creates with lavish hand, and frequently scatters abroad the choicest material with prodigal recklessness.

Every man is a genius, did he but know it; for he has latent capacities waiting to come into exercise whenever he allows himself to forget his finitude in contemplating and obeying the Infinite, which incessantly calls to him from within. If he listens to the voice it grows louder; if he obeys, it becomes more authoritative until, in time, he forgets the impotence of the lower self and identifies his life habitually with the higher.

Nearly every man needs, most of all, to learn to adapt or apply what he already knows. He has latent resources that need developing, and dormant powers that need quickening. ” Common sense” is genius in embryo. The dullest mind is stored with information enough to produce the works of a Homer or a Shakespeare;

but the fire of genius must be kindled slowly, by experience, before it will awaken memories, call forth slumbering thoughts, and reconstruct ideals from the scattered elements of past life. It is not the province of Art to copy forms. Genuine Art expresses ideas, as Nature herself does, and with the same kind of creative impulse therefore in essentially the same guise.

Both are inspired by the self-same Source, so that their aims are necessarily in perfect accord. The ideals of the true artist are identical with those of Nature. He feels the creative impulse as it is revealed in its vigor and purity in Nature.