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working out their own misfortune in corruption 
and injustice. I hope, my dear James, your useful, 
pleasing pursuits will never be interrupted by any 
thing that may happen to kingdoms and states : 
language ; and still more do we recommend them to those who 
desire to nourish. in their breasts magnanimity of sentiment and 
an unquenchable love of freedom. ‘They bear the impress of 
that seal, by which genius distinguishes its productions from 
works of learning and taste. The great and decisive test of 
genius is, that it calls forth power in the souls of others. It not 
merely gives knowledge, but breathes energy. There are au- 
thors, and among these Milton holds the highest rank, in ap- 
proaching whom we are conscious of an access of intellectual 
strength. <A ‘virtue goes out’ from them. We discern more 
clearly, not merely because a new light is thrown over objects, 
but because our own vision is strengthened. Sometimes a sin- 
gle word, spoken by the voice of genius, goes far into the heart. 
A hint, a suggestion, an undefined delicacy of expression, teaches 
more than we gather from volumes of less gifted men. 
“* His moral character was as strongly marked as his intellec- 
tual, and it may be expressed in one word, magnanimity. It 
was in harmony with his poetry. He had a passionate love of 
the higher, more commanding, and majestic virtues, and fed 
his youthful mind with meditations on the perfection of a human 
being. We have this vivid picture of his aspirations after vir- 
tue :—‘ What God may have determined for me I know not; 
but this I know, that if he ever instilled an intense love of moral 
beauty into the breast of any man, he has instilled it into mine. 
Ceres in the fable pursued not her daughter with a greater keen- 
ness of inquiry, than I, day and night, the idea of perfection. 
Hence whenever I find a man despising the false estimates of the 
vulgar, and daring to aspire in sentiment, language and conduct, 
to what the highest wisdom, through every age, has taught us as 
most excellent, to him I unite myself by a sort of necessary at- 
tachment.’ 
“‘ He reverenced moral purity and elevation, not only for its 
own sake, but as the inspirer of intellect, and especially of the 
