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THE POWERS OF GENIUS.

PART I.

ARGUMENT.

Genius described....Invention, the criterion of Genius.... The alliance of Genius with Fancy....Memory, Judgment, and Sympathy....Progress of Genius.... The climacterics of the Mind.... Taste and Genius distinguished.... Shakspeare's effect, and his neglect of Rules....Alonzo d'Ercilla.... Genius produced without cultivation....Ossian.... Ariosto....Burns....The influence of Climate and the face of Nature on the Mind....Geographical illustrations.....Picture of the Savage.....Invo

cation.

THE

POWERS OF GENIUS.

SAY what is Genius? words can ne'er define That power which springs from origin divine; Genius we know by her impetuous force; We know the torrent by its headlong course; We know the sun by his effulgent ray, Which gloom disperses from the face of day. Invention* marks the genius of the soul, And on the lightning rides from pole to pole.

Invention is the first part of poetry and painting: and absolutely necessary to them both; yet no rule ever was or ever can be given how to compass it. A happy genius is the gift of Nature; it depends on the influence of the stars, say the astrologers; on the organs of the body, say the na

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