A414 On Genius. 
tude. Early associates, the repression or 
encouragement of the nascent propensity by 
friends, the state of the health, or of the bo- 
dily frame, will affect the development and 
modify the character of Genius; turniug it 
to action or contemplation, inviting it to the 
pursuit of truth, or the cultivation of beauty, 
inspiring it with a love for the sweet and pa- 
thetic, or theawful and sublime. Had Lord 
Bacon and his great dramatic contemporary 
exchanged their education and early circum- 
stances—upon the present theory, we should 
think it highly credible, that Shakspeare 
would have been a distinguished philosopher, 
and the philosopher an illustrious poet. It is 
however the strong predilection of the mind 
for some one object—the effect of an acci- 
dental influence upon a constitution originally 
susceptible—which gives to Genius its power 
and its character. In cases, where this de- 
termination has never been produced—there 
may be great general talent—there may be 
the materiel of Genius, but its effects are not 
developed. Our theory therefore coincides 
with the original and proper signification of 
the word Genius, in representing it to con- 
sist in the strong bias of the mind for a par- 
ticular pursuit—as if under the constant in- 
fluence of a tudelary spirit. It agrees too, in 
