CHAPTER IX.
Conversations of men of genius.—Their deficient agreeableness may result from qualities which conduce to their greatness.—Slow-minded men not the dullest.—The conversationists not the ablest writers. —Their true excellence in conversation consists of associations with their pursuits. 99
CHAPTER X.
Literary solitude.—Its necessity.—Its pleasures.—Of visitors by profession.—Its inconveniences. 109
CHAPTER XI.
The meditations of Genius.—A work on the Art of Meditation not yet produced.—Predisposing the mind.—Imagination awakens imagination. —Generating feelings by music.—Slight habits.—Darkness and silence, by suspending the exercise of our senses, increase the vivacity of our conceptions.—The arts of memory.—Memory the foundation of genius.—Inventions by several to preserve their own moral and literary character.—And to assist their studies.—The meditations of genius depend on habit.—Of the night-time.—A day of meditation should precede a day of composition.—Works of magnitude from slight conceptions.—Of thoughts never written.—The art of meditation exercised at all hours and places.—Continuity of attention the source of philosophical discoveries. —Stillness of meditation the first state of existence in genius. 116
CHAPTER XII.
The enthusiasm of genius.—A state of mind resembling a waking dream distinct from reverie.—The ideal presence distinguished from the real presence.—The senses are really affected in the ideal world, proved by a variety of instances.—Of the rapture or sensation of deep study in art, science, and literature. —Of perturbed feelings, in delirium.—In extreme endurance of attention.—And in visionary illusions.—Enthusiasts in literature and art.—Of their self-immolations. 136
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the jealousy of genius.—Jealousy often proportioned to the degree of genius.—A perpetual fever among authors and artists. —Instances of its incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.—Of a peculiar species, where the fever consumes the sufferer without its malignancy. 154