Every work of art implies three acts of the intellect: an act, by which the artist conceives the pure idea, the soul of his creation; an act, by which he conceives or invents the form in which he is to incarnate this idea, the body of his creation; and, lastly, a conception of the relations between the pure idea and its material form, the rendering of the body a fit vehicle and indwelling-place for the soul. Three acts—but an artist of genius produces the three simultaneously; consequently a marvellous life and unity mark all his works: an artist of mere talent must be contented simply with the production of new combinations of form, since Genius alone can create artistic soul; while the assiduous student, without any peculiar natural gift, is capable of the third act, as it is only an intellectual exercise in which the scientific principles of art are skilfully applied to given forms.
Artists are frequently considered as deficient in the faculty of Reason, whereas no one was ever a great artist without possessing it in a high degree, and mankind are rapidly becoming aware of this fact. It is true they often jump the middle terms of their syllogisms, and assume premises to which the world has not yet arrived; but time stamps their rapid deductions as invincible, for genius dwells in the Realm of the Ideal: the realm, not of contingent and phenomenal actualities, but of eternal truths. 'For the ideal is destined to transform man and the world entire into its own image; and in this gradual and successive transformation consists the whole progressive history of humanity.'
Genius discerns the true and beautiful in itself, in the world of ideas, in God.
Talent lies on a lower level. It is the power of manifesting to men, whether by words, sounds, or plastic signs, the ideas already suggested by genius, or found by the reasoning faculties.
Genius is intuitive and creative—talent, reflective and acute.
Shakespeare was a poet of unequalled genius—Milton, of unrivalled talent.
Chopin is a composer of profound genius—Mendelssohn, of highly cultivated talent.
Madame de Stäel was a woman of genius—Miss Edgeworth, one of talent.
Elizabeth Barrett is a poet of genius—Tennyson, of talent.
Genius descends from the Idea to the Form—from the invisible to the visible: talent mounts from the visible to the invisible.