On Genius. 399 
of character—the original constitution of the 
mind, and the influence of circumstances. 
The foundation of Genius we believe to 
consist, as already stated, in a more than or- 
dinary susceptibility of temperament, which 
renders its possessor exquisitely sensible to 
pleasure and pain; but its development—or, 
in other words, the particular direction which 
it takes—is occasioned by the concentration 
of its sensibilities on some particular object— 
a concentration, which may be accidentally 
produced, but which yet could happen only 
_inamind of uncommon ardour and suscept- 
ibility. It is in this enthusiastic devotion 
to some one pursuit—this determination of 
the energies into some one channel—this per- 
manent ascendancy of some reigning associ- 
ation of ideas—that we are frequently able 
to discover the presence of Genius—and to 
distinguish it from the workings of those in- 
ferior minds, which seem incapable of any 
strong attachment, and, with the most insipid 
pliability, take the impression of the cir- 
cumstances to which they are successively 
exposed. In the lives of many eminent Ge- 
niuses—we may trace their tone of thinking— 
their style of writing—their manner in the 
practice of any art—to some circumstance 
occurring in early life, which took a power- 
