A LOGICAL DISQUISITION ON EXALTED GfcNIUS. 123 



a man through thick and thin like a starving belly '? Or when can 

 a man be supposed to exert himself in writing so " powerfully " as 

 when he writes for his daily bread ? "Tis to these maxims that we 

 owe that superior excellence, that distinguishes the writings of these 

 latter days, and which, when posterity reads, it will read with 

 wonder and admiration. Already poets (so I am informed by my 

 brothers of Attica) begin to return to their garrets, stnd their*' genius' 5 

 returns along with them. In concurrence with the designs, and 

 partly at the request of several of our enlightened patrons, I have 

 done this essay to render my more nervous contemporaries easy 

 under the change they must of necessity make. I can assure them, 

 as an omen of the satisfaction they will enjoy in such apartments as 

 mine, that constant health will keep their bodies vigorous, and minds 

 active, for hither the very gross vapours of the town never reach, 

 and even their very days are longer than theirs who live below, 

 Solem suum sua sidera norunt. Moreover, temperance the guardian 

 of long life and all the virtues, always inhabits with the " presiding 

 spirit" of so lofty an eminence as a garret, But there is nothing 

 which more abundantly demonstrates the healthMness of the situa- 

 tion, than, that they, who live in these sublime apartments, never 

 want a good appetite ; a truth sufficiently experimented by their 

 unsuspecting neighbours, whenever they make a descent on them. 



There is also a great advantage from the security of this post, that 

 ought not to be passed over in silence : for, as liberty is the dearest 

 blessing to all true Britons, I do not know any place that promises 

 more security from bailiffs, as their approaches may be discovered 

 at a good distance ; and the " pass" may be maintained by a smaller 

 force against great numbers; but this is a " tender" point, of which, 

 as the captious may take advantage, I shall say no more. I do not 

 consider it a part of my business to divulge the mysteries of my pro- 

 fession ; moreover, it is sufficiently well known by learned men that 

 book-publishers, as well as book-writers, are not overburdened with 

 real means. 



To pursue, therefore, my observations on the salubrity of the 

 situation. The exercise up and down stairs relieves the breast 

 wonderfully. It is this that gives the bard breath to swell his high- 

 bosomed verses, and carry the orator to the end of his elongated 

 periods; hence proceeds the lofty (and indeed more than human) 

 sound, of verses produced in a garret, which as much exceeds the 

 " unhallowed ribaldry" begotten below, as the garret itself is higher 

 than the inferior and ground-floors. To this advantage in the situa- 

 tion are to be attributed the light and active bodies (emblems of 

 their souls) observable in our brethren of the literati ; insomuch that 

 a lean body may be a sort of criterion of a virtuoso. For my own 

 part I never behold a fat author, or a stout gentleman of the press, 

 that I do not consider myself considerably scandalised ; I look upon 

 all such as deserters from the intellectual banners of the Muses, 

 apostates from the very highest heaven of the good letters : pro- 

 digies to be expiated by sacrifice ; in fine, wretches who ought to be 

 driven from the society of the " learned," like unprincipled stationery 

 aldermen, or like hunted deer ; for such strange phenomena are not 



