416). On Genius. 
The circumstance, which determines the 
bent of the Genius by inspiring it with the. 
predominant association, often occurs at a 
period of life too early for record. To the 
influence and instractions of the mother in 
the very dawn of intellect, more perhaps than 
to any other general circumstance, the mind is 
indebted for its first impulse and the elements 
of its subsequent character. Nor do we find 
any fact more frequently mentioned in the 
lives of distinguished men, than that of the 
stimulus applied to their awakening faculties 
by the foresight of maternal affection. So, 
we represent susceptibility of temperament to be the foundation of 
Genius, yet we have all along supposed, that its effects—the character- 
istic qualities, which we have formerly enumerated, will not be de- 
veloped, unless this constitutional ardour of soul be determined to some 
particular pursuit ; and that it is this concentration of its faculties, which 
givesito the mind its originality and its creative force.. Where the natural 
sensibility is exceedingly strong, it is most likely that some such deter- 
mination will, at some time or other, be produced. But a far inferior 
degree of original sensibility is sufficient to lay the foundation of Taste; 
aquality, which can be matured by a liberal education alone—but 
which strengthens by exercise, and which the incessant renewal of plea- 
surable associations with the works of nature and art renders at length 
exquisitely alive to beauty, and susceptible of emotion. In confirmation 
of these views, we may observe that Taste seems to be as universal, as 
Genius is restricted, in its operations, While the painter and the poet 
are unable to excel, except by confining their attention to their single de- 
partment ; the man of Taste addresses himself with equal delight to all 
the various creations of the imagination; nor is there a beauty in the 
whiole range of nature or art, 
“but whence his bosom can partake 
Fresii pleasure ynreproved.”’ 
