On Genius. 407 
To the more direct reasonings, by which 
we have endeavoured to support the foregoing 
theory of Genius, we may add the two follow- 
ing general considerations. If the foundation 
of Genius lic in a constitutional susceptibility 
of temperament, it is obvious that it must, in 
some way or other, depend on the bodily organ- 
ization; and consequently, whatever circum- 
stances modify the physical constitution of 
man, may be supposed to have a proportional 
of nature, even rude and uncultivated minds acquire a sagacity and fore- 
sight, which resemble inspiration : 
Till old experience do attain 
To something like prophetic strain. 
When such are the effects of habit and attention, in cases where Genius 
is out of the question; what may not be expected from a mind of supe- 
riour order, all whose associations, from its constitutional susceptibility, 
are peculiarly bright and strong, and whose habits, from an early deter- 
mination of the attention to some particular pursuit, have attained almost 
the quickness and promptitude of instiuet ?— Some singular cases are on 
record of'a partial development of intellect. Of these one of the most 
remarkable, which bas occurred of late years, is that of Richard Roberts 
Jones; an account of whose extraordinary talent for the acquisition of 
Janguages, conjoined with an almost idiotic deficiency in the ordinary 
operations of intellect, is given in a liitle memoir, which, 1 believe, I 
am correct inascribing to Mr. Roscoe, ‘The views above stated coincide 
with the explanation offered by Mr. R. of this singular phenome- 
non; which, he conceives, has arisen from an exclusive direction of the 
attention to mere philology. © Upou similar principles, we may perbaps 
‘account for those occasional instances of early and almost miraculous 
skill in calculation, accompanied by a corresponding deficiency of judg- 
ment and observation in other respects. Whatever attention the indi- 
vidual was capable of bestowing, was turned into one channel and 
concentrated on a single object. The reader will at once recur to the 
well-known case of Jedediah Buxton, and remember the account of his 
