392 On Genius. 
graceful, and affected him with the liveliest 
emotions of delight—are treasured up in his 
memory and bound together in an indissoluble 
chain of association. When he meditates 
some new creation of the pencil or the chi- 
sel—these scattered elements of ideal beauty, 
as if summoned by the wand of an enchanter, 
rapidly assemble at the call of the predomi- 
nant association, and bring from every pro- 
vince of nature and art the choicest treasures 
of grace and loveliness.(7) ‘The stronger the 
impression, which they originally produeed— 
the more readily will they now offer them- 
selves to the selection of the fancy; the more 
glowing will be the enthusiasm which they 
inspire; the brighter, fresher and more ori- 
ginal, will be the forms of beauty in which 
they combine and develop themselves. ‘This 
process of the mind is exquisitely unfolded 
From the womb of earth, 
From ocean’s bed they come: the eternal heavens 
Disclose their splendours, and the dark abyss 
Pours forth her births unknown. With fixed gaze 
(j) 
He marks the rising phantoms. Now compares 
Their different forms; now blends them, now divides, 
Enlarges, and extenuates by turns; 
Opposes, ranges in fantastic bands, 
And infinitely varies. ’ 
Pleasures of Imagination.—Boox III, 387.—395. 
