Such is true popularity; such the power of speech. One is strong when he has on his side the reason and will of the multitude; when he has sympathy with humanity, and possesses the hearts of the masses. {146} Let others say what they please: the many possess more mind than one person, whoever he may be; and popular speech has more weight than the speculations or fancies of a man of science, or even a man of genius. Further, there is a sort of relationship between popularity and genius, so that one cannot exist with out the other. For, what is a man of genius? He is one who has learnt to seize the thoughts, the aspirations, the wants of his own times, and has profoundly traced them in brilliant, energetic, sympathetic pages; a man who astonishes and revivifies the age in which he lives, by telling it aright what it is, what it thinks, what it wants, and what it suffers. Moreover, as has been remarked long ago, the finest conceptions of genius are always grasped by the people. On the other hand, the most sublime pages are always popular. I shall cite but one example, which is familiar to all. ... The prophet Isaiah is describing the fall of the King of Babylon:-- "How hath the oppressor ceased! ... The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying:--Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? art them become like unto us? {147} Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. All the kings of the nations ... lie in glory ... but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. ... I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying:--Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness? ... Thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people. The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they do not rise nor possess the land." (_Isaiah_ xiv. 4-21.)