If the glory that was Greece shone forth because Pericles kindled its flame, then Pericles in any time and amongst any people would probably have ushered in a Golden Age.  Had Carnegie lived in any other day and sought his industrial giants, he would no doubt have found them.  If a supreme judge of latent talent and inspirer of high achievement can thus always find material ready to his hand, it follows that humanity is rich in undiscovered genius—­that, in the race, there are, unguessed and undeveloped, possibilities for a millennium of Golden Ages.  Psychologists tell us that only a very small percentage of the real ability and energy of the average man is ever developed or used.

“Poor man!” says a reviewer, speaking of a contemporary, “he never discovered his discoverer.”  The man who waits for his Pericles usually waits in vain.  There has been only one Pericles in all history.  Great geniuses in the discovery, development, and management of men are rare.  Most men never meet them.  And yet every man can discover his discoverer.

Self-knowledge is the first step to self-development.  Through an understanding of his own aptitudes and talents one may find fullest expression for the highest possibilities of his intellect and spirit.  A man who thus knows himself needs no other discoverer.  The key to self-knowledge is intelligent, scientific self-study.

In the year 1792, Mahmoud Effendi, a Turkish archer, hit a mark with an arrow at 482 yards.  His bow, arrows, thumb-ring and groove are still on exhibition in London as proof of the feat.  His prowess lay in his native gift, trained by years of practice, to guess the power of his bow, the weight and balance of his arrow, and the range and direction of his target; also, the sweep of the wind.  This he gained by observations repeated until the information gathered from them amounted to almost exact knowledge.  Thousands of gunners to-day hit a mark miles away, with a 16-inch gun, not because they are good guessers, but because, by means of science, they determine accurately all of the factors entering into the flight of their projectiles.  Pericles judged men by a shrewd guess—­the kind of guess called intuition.  But such intuition is only a native gift of keen observation, backed by good judgment, and trained by shrewd study of large numbers of men until it becomes instinctively accurate.

In modern times we are learning not to depend upon mere guesses—­no matter how shrewd.  Mahmoud Effendi could not pass on to others the art he had acquired.  But the science of gunnery can be taught to any man of average intelligence and natural aptitudes.  Pericles left posterity not one hint about how to judge men—­how to recognize ability.  Humanity needs a scientific method of judging men, so that any man of intelligence can discover genius—­or just native ability—­in himself and others.

As the result of our ignorance, great possibilities lie undeveloped in nearly all men.  Self-expression is smothered in uncongenial toil.  Parents and teachers, groping in the dark, have long been training natural-born artists to become mechanics, natural-born business men to become musicians, and boys and girls with great aptitudes for agriculture and horticulture to become college professors, lawyers, and doctors.  Splendid human talent, amounting in some cases to positive genius, is worse than wasted as a result.