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exult in some mystical power in their faculties; who hint at the solicitude of nature at their birth; who talk with fluency on the stellar virtue, which Boileau has made the first position in the art of poetry. Frail females formerly accused their stars as the cause of their incontinence; and we have idlers who apologize for their defects from no lower influence a resolute love of virtue would have preserved the female, and a resolute love of labour would have rendered the idler active.

While some reject this occult influence, others utter equal extravagances; genius has been regulated by the degree of longitude and latitude; it has been derived from the subtilty of the blood, and even the refinements of cookery; others suppose that a writer of imagination is incapable of learned research, and that for every particular study a peculiar construction of the intellectual powers becomes necessary; that the solidity of judgment impedes the vigour of fancy, and that the poet cannot investigate nature with the eye of science."

Genius has been divided and subdivided. There is a genius for oratory, consisting of the art of moving the passions, united with the art of applying our arguments; a genius for physics and geometry, when occupied in calculating the motions and action of the globes of the universe, and the whole phenomena of nature; a genius for painting and sculpture, when the pencil and chisel trace on the marble or canvas the actions or the features of a hero; and the genius for poetry is said to consist in the power which nature imparts by physical sensibility, and a happy conformation of the organs to certain persons, in conceiving boldly, and delivering easily; in painting what is strongly felt, and it is, in a word, what Horace calls splendida bilis, which we are further informed is a kind of central fire, which elevates the mind, warms the imagination, which makes one think with force, and describe with liveliness.

But what is gained by all these mystical distinctions, this splendida bilis and central fire? Are we always to take words for things? Do such critics say any thing more, than that genius is genius? I lament that even Pope extends this system to critisism; for he says of poets and critics,

Both must alike from heaven derive their light;

These born to judge, as well as those to write;

which is certainly contrary to experience; taste, the characteristic of criticism, is now acknowledged to be obtainable by a constant attachment to the most finished performances of art. And when he adds,

Let such teach others who themselves

excel;

And censure freely who have written well,

the maxim is not less erroneous: for the best poets are not always the surest critics, as in the case of Goldsmith and others; and most of the best critics have not been poets.

With chilling fancies like these have the minds of the most adventurous been rendered pusillanimous; and grand designs, conceived with ardent felicity, have suddenly expired, because their affrighted parents refused to foster them with industry. In an accomplished genius, Horace, one of the most philosophical of poets, allows that art must be united with nature; but we have probably ideas of this power of nature different from those of Horace. Since his time, and even at present, some regard genius as nothing short of inspiration, and employ, in these sober disquisitions, the fanciful terms of poetry. We are told, that to attain superiority in any art, we must be born with a certain susceptibility, or aptitude; we must be born a poet, or a painter; or, as one painter complimented another, by saying, that he was a painter in his mother's womb. A happy genius depends on the influence of the stars,

say the astrologers; on the organs of the body, assert the naturalists; on the favour of Heaven, exclaim the divines. Every one seems willing to do honour to his own profession. But such mystic reveries indulged by the artist, only show that he is interested in exciting the wonder of the ignorant; this is not less injurious to art, than visionary fanaticism to religion.

Dryden traces the whole history of genius in a couplet:

-what in nature's dawn the child admired, The youth endeavoured and the man

ACQUIRED.

Yet it is not always necessary that this admiration should be felt in childhood, or in youth, since accidental causes have frequently directed the pursuits of genius. Johnson says, "To a particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet, or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read; some early conversation which they heard; or some accident which excited ardour and emulation." Caresses and coercion, also, have made many a youth a bright genius; patronage and poverty have stimulated men to become illustrious artists.

Metastasio affirmed that necessity frequently augmented our powers, and forced us to perform in a better manner, though with more expedition than our mere choice and leisure. Two of his best operas were produced in a short time, being commanded by a particular oc

casion.

Bernocchi's voice was never naturally good, says Burney, and at first was so much disliked, that he was peremptorily told by his friends to quit the profession; but his situation had left him without strength or spirits for any other. By severe study he acquired a style and manner, which became the standard of perfection in that art.

Nature had not designed Matherbe for a poet, but he overcame nature

in his struggles, observes Boileau.

In the history of genius we are presented with wider prospects, by the attention of late bestowed on the study of biography. In the history of philosophers and poets we trace the genius of philosophy and poetry; we observe that certain events produce certain consequences, and perceive why men, with equal aptitudes, have not always become men of equal genius. Il

lustrious characters are rare, owing to the rarity of those coincident. events which produce such characters. Man is so influenced by moral causes, that the perfection of his genius is ever proportioned to them. When men of letters reflect on the manner of their own attainments, and on the literary history of others, they discover that the faculties of the mind are not gifts of nature, but effects of human causes, or acquisitions of art.

Every man of common organization has the power of becoming a man of genius, if to this he add a solitary devotion to his art, and a vehement passion for glory. It is the capacity of long attention, which at present makes one man superior to another. Physical sensibility may vary, and defective organs cannot be supplied by any artificial process; but, in general, nature is more impartial than some of her children allow; and it would be hard to find men, so cruelly neglected by our common mother, as not to be able to excel in some particular department, when, by examining their mental stores, they discover the kind of study for which they are best adapted, and when, having made this important discovery, moral and physical causes are not hostile to their progress. An idiot is more rare than a man of genius.

The man of genius should carefully examine his physical and moral state; for to improve his advantages, and supply his deficiencies, constitute his great business. A defect of a physical kind will greatly incommode him; and the purblind eye of Johnson, which denied any

taste for picturesque beauty, occasioned much erroneous criticism, without, however, diminishing his acquired faculties on topics where a good eye was not requisite. Moral defects are innumerable; they contract, or enfeeble, or annihilate genius. Shenstone, who devoted his days to poetry equally with Pope, could never reach his powers. But was not his life a series of discontent and listlessness? without the vigour of hope, or the exhilaration of enjoyment? Pope, on the contrary, was fortunate through life. In other circumstances, Dryden might have proved superior in all things to Pope, and Otway had equalled Shakespeare.

The finest organization will never form one work of genius. The mere natural produce of the most fertile individual will now be only a pitiable indigence; for the opulence of the mind can now only be formed out of acquired knowledge; and the most valuable productions will be those in which the industry of the author has been greatest.

We learn to think, by being conversant with the thoughts of others. It is asserted, indeed, that the thoughts of others encumber our own. He, however, who is not familiarized with the finest thoughts of the finest writers, will one day find that his best thoughts are their indifferent ones. Nature prescribes a certain progression; she expands by a gradual amplification; she makes no leaps. But he who fondly dotes on what he terms his natural powers, audaciously imagines, that he can unaided arrive at the point attained by the fraternal labours of the most eminent. To think with thinking men, is to run with agile racers. But as this is not always attended to, we abound with writers who are far removed from an excellence they could have acquired; as he who, accustomed to run in a solitary course, felicitated himself as being one of the first racers, but received the public derision when he presented himself at the Olympic games.

When meditating on the charac ters, modes of life, slow formation, and painful vigilance of some great writers, we shall suspect that their conspicuous labours were the gradual acquisitions of art. Of these, many acknowledge that they produced nothing valuable till a flame, caught by contact, had lighted up their mind; they resemble certain trees, which, though they could produce no valuable fruit of themselves, are excellent for grafting on.

Among these writers we might place Boileau and Racine; Pope and Gray; Akenside and Armstrong; Montesquieu and Johnson. When Boileau asked Chapelle, a facile, natural writer, for an opinion of his poetry, Chapelle made this sarcastic comparison :-You are a great ox, who, drawing slowly and painfully, make a deep furrow.

There are certain writers, such as Adam Smith, Locke, and Bayle, whose works require analytical and minute investigation. This calmness of intellect rises from constitutional causes; and so far it may be said, that a man is born to be a philosopher or poet. The warmth and temperature of the constitution may influence his modes of life, and the arrangement of his ideas.

The natural facility which some writers appear to possess, is no ob jection to this system. Such authors as Fielding and Goldsmith, Sheridan and Wolcot, are not supposed to have overwhelmed their minds by extraneous studies; and such writers are often even very illiterate. They address themselves to the heart, and not to the head. But still from industry, and pertinacity of attention, is their rapidity of combination derived; and not from what marvelling ignorance sometimes regards as inspiration or organization. They have given a strong direction to their minds in the great system of human life; they therefore excel in that point, though they may be, and generally are, deficient in other qualities; for we shall always find that no man can know what he has not learnt, or know that suddenly

which requires habitual attention. He who imitates the works of naturé must first accurately observe them, and accurate observation is to be expected from those only who take great pleasure in it. Pope declared he could not pursue any subject without pleasure; he could not perform the tasks set by his stupid pedagogues.

None but mad bards dream of inspiration. Metastasio laughs at all poetic inspiration, and made a poem as mechanically as others make a watch. When Du Fresnoy exclaims, in the ordinary language, of

That majesty, that grace so rarely given

To mortal man, not taught by art-but heaven!

Reynolds comments thus: "This excellence, however expressed, whether by genius, taste, or the gift of heaven, I am confident may be acquired."

And indeed, if we attend to the precious observations of those who have excelled, we hear no ro mance of original powers, no inspirations from nature, no divine impulse that creates a world at a word. The painter finds it long before the pencil accomplishes those beauties which he has long meditated, and the poet consumes many a year in verse before a great poem is attempted.

Reynolds painted many hours every day for thirty years together; Goldsmith composed his poems by slow and laborious efforts, and they are the finished productions of several years. Churchill, though a versifier at fifteen, was not known as a poet till after thirty. Sterne read at least as much as he thought, and was unknown till a late period of life. Young, in his epistle to Tickle, alluding to the Spectator, says,

A chance amusement polish'd half an age.

But it has been since discovered, that Addison had previously collected materials to the amount of three

VOL. V. NO. XXXI.

folio volumes! The work of Montesquieu was the beloved occupation of twenty years; the wit of Butler was not extemporaneous, but painfully elaborated from notes which he incessantly accumulated. Rawley, the confidential friend of Bacon, records, that he had twelve copies of his Instauration every year incessantly revised and augmented, till at length it became, as he terms it, a pyramid of learning. Gesner, the poet of nature, wrote with great labour and severe revisals, yet all his pieces have the air of unpremeditated composition. The fami liar verses of Berni, the burlesque poet, were produced by incessant retouches. And the Emilius of Rousseau was the fruit, the author tells us, of twenty years meditation, and of three years composition.

Among the advocates of our system we rank the first geniuses of this age. Johnson, Helvetius, and Reynolds, Quintilian and Locke ascribe to men an equal mental capacity; Pascal says, what is called nature, is only our first habit; and Buffon affirmed that greater genius is only greater patience. Invention itself depends on patience; contemplate your subject long, says he, till a sort of electric spark convulses for a moment the brain, and spreads down to the very heart a glow of irritation.

In the discourses of Reynolds, this principle is laid down as the foundation of all excellence in art. "Not to enter into metaphysical discus. sions on the nature and essence of genius, I will venture to assert, that assiduity, unabated by difficulty, and a disposition eagerly directed to the object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar to those which some call the result of natural pow ers." Johnson has touched on this topic in his Rambler, and, in the person of Imlach, we are instructed, that when he resolved to make himself a poet, "he saw every thing with a new purpose."

Rousseau is the adversary of this system, though his own example confirms it; he adopts the popular

2

notion that the character of men's minds merely depends on their respective organization. Rousseau, it is well known, contradicts him self throughout his works; and on no subject so much as on the present. Helvetius has collected his contradictions; the surest and the most modest mode of confuting a writer. He discloses the source of the errors of Rousseau. He says, "The contradictions of this writer are not to be wondered at. His observations are almost always just, and his principles almost always false and trite. Hence his errors.'

Rousseau tell us, he was acquainted with a servant who, having frequently observed his master paint, felt a furious passion to become a painter. He passed three years, nailed to his chair, in painting; and nothing but attendance on his master could take him away from it. At length, favoured by his master, and assisted by the instructions of an artist, he quitted his livery, and lived by his pencil. Till a certain point, perseverance suffices in lieu of genius; he has reached this point, and will never pass it. The constancy and emulation of this honest man are laudable; but he will never paint but for sign-posts.

Now here is a young man, who has already attained a certain age, in the daily service of his master, and who, without preparatory in structions, or various models, feels the eager disposition, and the necessary assiduity. But both the disposition and the assiduity are very imperfect. An artist, incessantly engaged in domestic business, must be classed among those whose moral situation enfeebles and almost annihilates genius. This young man, had he known no other service but his art, and no other master but a Reynolds, with his disposition and assiduity, might have become an artist. All this proves the difficulty of becoming a man of genius, unless befriended by external circumstances; and that no footman has any chance of becoming a great artist.

In the rude periods of society, when a writer has few predecessors, he will pour forth his virgin fancies. He must then meditate on great original nature; the impres sions must be vivid, though rude, and the combinations new and wild. Some, whose physical sensibility, improved by imperceptible habit, may receive more lively sensations than others, will display a facility and celerity of conception apparently supernatural to the vulgar and the ignorant. In the latter class even the highest minds must then be ranked; and it is not improbable that the artist himself is not less persuaded than his admirers, that he is agitated by a certain impulse, and that his performances could not be produced by human means. Est Deus in nobis, exclaims the selfwondering Ovid, at a later period indeed, but when true philosophy had made but little progress. Hence the origin of that fanciful interposition of nature in the case of men of genius; and it is then that poets are regarded as prophets, and sages as magicians.

The monkish ages blended many of the absurdities of polytheism with their own peculiar ones; and it was then, Erasmus informs us, that the adage was formed, worthy of monkish taste and credulity; poeta nascitur, non fit; which Ben Jonson contradicts, by affirming that a poet may be made, as well as born. Goldsmith says of Nero, he was desirous of becoming a poet, but unwilling to undergo the pains of study, which a proficiency in that art requires; he was desirous of being a poet ready made. Goldsmith was a judge by experience; his poems are really made, but were not readily made; taken up at different times, and pursued through long intervals; the poetry of a philosophical age, the union of reason and taste; but inspiration never, certainly, entered into his thoughts.

A great revolution appears in the world of taste; the flame of investigation rises gradually in the most

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