On Genius. 381 
There must be enthusiasm in a writer himself, 
to produce an impression on his readers ; and 
enthusiasm is most likely to be excited, 
where the conceptions are strong and vivid. 
Where again the conceptions are vivid, the 
associations of ideas will be various and ex- 
tensive, rapidly connecting themselves with 
every object in the whole sphere of thought 
and observation.- In this richness of associa- 
tion, we discover another token of Genius.(f/) 
(f) There is perhaps no period of our Literature, in which this rich- 
ness of association is so conspicuous as in what is called the age of Queen 
Elizabeth, though in fact embracing a considerably longer space than 
the reign of that Princess. One reason may be, that our language had 
not acquired that power of abstract and philosophical expression, which 
it at present possesses. Hence writers of all descriptions, in prose as 
well as in poetry, were under the necessity of recurring to figures and 
similitudes, in order to convey the full force of their ideas. Language 
is the vehicle of thought; but thought, during this period of our literary 
history shot forth with such vigour and rapidity, as to outgrow the 
capacity of its habitual vehicle; and it was some time before this dispa- 
tity could be adjusted. Hence men resorted, in their necessity, to the 
original source of all ideas however abstract, the world of sense and 
matter ; and helped out their intellectual deficiency by means of metaphors 
and comparisons. Witness, for example, the writings of Lord Bacon. 
T cannot but think this vigilance to detect analogies between the natural 
and the mora! world, this habit of presenting truth in a picturesque and 
emblematic form to the mind's eye—must have tended to encrease the 
vividness of the conceptions and multiply the associations, however 
unfavourable it might generally prove to clearness and depth of reason- 
ing. Norshould the influence of the Masques and Pageants be forgotten; 
which accustomed the mind to contemplate the truths of religion and 
morality through the medium of images addressed to the eye, and | \ust 
have given a peculiar distinctness to the conceptions, and a figurative ex- 
pression to the language, of all classes, From this extreme vividness of 
