“ for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis. ”
Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). copy citation
| Author | Edgar Allan Poe |
|---|---|
| Source | The Murders in the Rue Morgue |
| Topic | analysis |
| Date | 1841 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tales_(Poe)/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue |
Context
“The first two or three rounds having been played, he is in full possession of the contents of each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards with as absolute a precision of purpose as if the rest of the party had turned outward the faces of their own.
The analytical power should not be confounded with ample ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis. The constructive or combining power, by which ingenuity is usually manifested, and to which the phrenologists (I believe erroneously) have assigned a separate organ, supposing it a primitive faculty, has been so frequently seen in those whose intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy, as to have attracted general observation among writers on morals.”
source
