THE POEMS OF JOHN KEATS. 



IN metaphysics, the term soul is in all respects undefinable. Of a 

 divine spark, animating- an inert and physical substance, superior to 

 all trammels, and independent of change, decay, or death, no idea 

 can be formed. The term " genius," if not equally undefinable, is 

 more vague. It would rather denote the manifestations or the power 

 of some highly endowed mind, than any distinctive mental faculty 

 acting" without relation to another. It implies, in fact, the combined 

 operation of several faculties, being their centre and guiding prin- 

 ciple. If the effects of genius be considered, it will be found to 

 display many modifications, varying in kind, but equally powerful in 

 their individual attributes. Genius then may be called power, as 

 independent of the human world as the soul is of the human frame, 

 surviving even the last ruins of the perishable temple in which it 

 was once enshrined. 



Of the various modifications presented by genius, the most noble, 

 lasting, and imposing, is the poetic one. There can be no relation 

 in this to any other; it stands alone on its self- exalted pinnacle ; it 

 has been worshipped with love and gratitude by all successive gene- 

 rations, for it is co-existent with creation itself, and as powerful for 

 the future as the past. How wonderful to think, that a blind old 

 man, writing nearly 3000 years ago, should yet be remembered ; 

 that the last notes of his immortal lyre have never passed away, and 

 that a modern world, already fast beginning to evolve elements of 

 self-regeneration, cannot too much admire the manifestations of that 

 old man's mind, even amidst the barbarism and darkness by which 

 they were surrounded. 



Such are the grand effects of the poetic genius. We have said, 

 that of itself the latter is a vague term, signifying rather the power- 

 ful combination of several faculties] than the exercise of an individual 

 one. These faculties analyzed, consist of " imagination, judgment, 

 and memory." By the first term, is implied an unlimited range of 

 invention from the highest efforts of originality to the not less pleas- 

 ing gradations of what is termed fancy. The second is that great 

 and sterling power, which gives symmetry, method, and arrange- 

 ment, to the various creations of the other. The third is a most 

 useful auxiliary to the first, by supplying it with the means of inven- 

 tion from its never exhausted store. Thus, these three faculties, 

 beautifully combined, make up the poetic genius. As far as the 

 imagination and judgment are developed, and as closely as they go 

 together, the last restraining the impulses of the first, and moulding 

 them into use and beauty, so strong is the genius, and so far capable 

 of being sustained in its loftiest and most novel conceptions. Memory 

 cannot act independent of judgment, nor imagination of memory. 

 Without a power of methodizing, Watts tells us this mental store- 



M.M.No. l. C 



