Genius is the power of invention and imitation. It is an incommunicable faculty: no art or ſkill of the poſſeſſor can beſtow the ſmalleſt portion of it on another: no pains or labour can reach the ſummit of perfection, where the ſeeds of it are wanting in the mind; yet it is capable of infinite improvement where it actually exiſts, and is attended with the higheſt capacity of communicating inſtruction, as well as delight to others.
It is the peculiar property of genius to ſtrike out great or beautiful things: it is the felicity of good ſenſe not to do abſurd ones. Genius breaks out in ſplendid ſentiments and elevated ideas; good ſenſe confines its more circumſcribed, but perhaps more uſeful walk, within the limits of prudence and propriety.
The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to ſhape, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
This is perhaps the fineſt picture of human genius that ever was drawn by a human pencil. It preſents a living image of a creative imagination, or a power of inventing things which have no actual exiſtence.
With ſuperficial judges, who, it muſt be confeſſed, make up the greater part of the maſs of mankind, talents are only liked or underſtood to a certain degree. Lofty ideas are above the reach of ordinary apprehenſions: the vulgar allow thoſe who poſſeſs them to be in a ſomewhat higher ſtate of mind than themſelves; but of the vaſt gulf which ſeparates them, they have not the leaſt conception. They acknowledge a ſuperiority, but of its extent they neither know the value, nor can conceive the reality. It is true, the mind, as well as the eye, can take in objects larger than itſelf; but this is only true of great minds: for a man of low capacity, who conſiders a conſummate genius, reſembles one, who ſeeing a column for the firſt time, and ſtanding at too great a diſtance to take in the whole of it, concludes it to be flat. Or, like one unacquainted with the firſt principles of philoſophy, who, finding the ſenſible horizon appear a plain ſurface, can form no idea of the ſpherical form of the whole, which he does not ſee, and laughs at the account of antipodes, which he cannot comprehend.
Whatever is excellent is alſo rare; what is uſeful is more common. How many thouſands are born qualified for the coarſe employments of life, for one who is capable of excelling in the fine arts! yet ſo it ought to be, becauſe our natural wants are more numerous, and more importunate, than the intellectual.
Whenever it happens that a man of diſtinguiſhed talents has been drawn by miſtake, or precipitated by paſſion, into any dangerous indiſcretion; it is common for thoſe whoſe coldneſs of temper has ſupplied the place, and uſurped the name of prudence, to boaſt of their own ſteadier virtue, and triumph in their own ſuperior caution; only becauſe they have never been aſſailed by a temptation ſtrong enough to ſurpriſe them into error. And with what a viſible appropriation of the character to themſelves, do they conſtantly conclude, with a cordial compliment to common ſense! They point out the beauty and uſefulneſs of this quality ſo forcibly and explicitly, that you cannot poſſibly miſtake whoſe picture they are drawing with ſo flattering a pencil. The unhappy man whoſe conduct has been ſo feelingly arraigned, perhaps acted from good, though miſtaken motives; at leaſt, from motives of which his cenſurer has not capacity to judge: but the event was unfavourable, nay the action might be really wrong, and the vulgar maliciouſly take the opportunity of this ſingle indiſcretion, to lift themſelves nearer on a level with a character, which, except in this inſtance, has always thrown them at the moſt diſgraceful and mortifying diſtance.
The elegant Biographer of Collins, in his affecting apology for that unfortunate genius, remarks, "That the gifts of imagination bring the heavieſt taſk on the vigilance of reaſon; and to bear thoſe faculties with unerring rectitude, or invariable propriety, requires a degree of firmneſs, and of cool attention, which does not always attend the higher gifts of the mind; yet difficult as Nature herſelf ſeems to have rendered the taſk of regularity to genius, it is the ſupreme conſolation of dullneſs, and of folly to point with gothic triumph to thoſe exceſſes which are the overflowing of faculties they never enjoyed."
What the greater part of the world mean by common ſenſe, will be generally found, on a cloſer enquiry, to be art, fraud, or ſelfiſhneſs! That ſort of ſaving prudence which makes men extremely attentive to their own ſafety, or profit; diligent in the purſuit of their own pleaſures or intereſts; and perfectly at their eaſe as to what becomes of the reſt of mankind. Furies, where their own property is concerned, philoſophers when nothing but the good of others is at ſtake, and perfectly reſigned under all calamities but their own.
When we ſee ſo many accompliſhed wits of the preſent age, as remarkable for the decorum of their lives, as for the brilliancy of their writings, we may believe, that, next to principle, it is owing to their good ſenſe, which regulates and chaſtiſes their imaginations. The vaſt conceptions which enable a true genius to aſcend the ſublimeſt heights, may be ſo connected with the ſtronger paſſions, as to give it a natural tendency to fly off from the ſtrait line of regularity; till good ſenſe, acting on the fancy, makes it gravitate powerfully towards that virtue which is its proper centre.