380 On Genius. 
those vulgar andhacknied associations, which 
are imparted to all men by a common educa- 
tion, and which have ceased, from their in- 
cessant recurrence, to excite any emotions of 
pleasure. Hence his enthusiasm is warm 
and susceptible, and derived from a source 
within himself. ‘The originality of his mind, 
which is one essential constituent of his Ge- 
nius, does not indeed reject the conceptions 
nor is insensible to the emotions of other 
men; but before such conceptions and 
emotions can be admitted to take up their 
abode in his own mind, they must harmonize 
with his previous sense of what is just and 
beautiful; they must be felé like his own; 
and by being feli—by being incorporated 
with his own primitive stock of imagery and 
sentiment, they preserve the same freshness 
and originality of character, as if they had 
not been derived from any foreign source. 
Some of the choicest passages in- Virgil, 
Spenser and Milton are imitations; yet they 
have not one feature of the common-place. 
The imagery, which those illustrious poets 
borrowed from their predecessors, was so 
wrought into their minds, that it formed a 
consistent whole with their native conceptions, 
and was poured forth with them from the 
heart in one mingled tide of inspiration. 
