There is no Character more frequently given to a Writer, than that of being a Genius. I have heard many a little Sonneteer called a
fine Genius
. There is not an Heroick Scribler in the Nation, that has not his Admirers who think him a
great Genius
; and as for your Smatterers in Tragedy, there is scarce a Man among them who is not cried up by one or other for a
prodigious Genius
.
My design in this Paper is to consider what is properly a great Genius, and to throw some Thoughts together on so uncommon a Subject.
Among great Genius's those few draw the Admiration of all the World upon them, and stand up as the Prodigies of Mankind, who by the meer Strength of natural Parts, and without any Assistance of Arts or Learning, have produced Works that were the Delight of their own Times, and the Wonder of Posterity. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in these great natural Genius's, that is infinitely more beautiful than all the Turn and Polishing of what the
French
call a
Bel Esprit
, by which they would express a Genius refined by Conversation, Reflection, and the Reading of the most polite Authors.
The
greatest Genius
which
1
runs through the Arts and Sciences, takes a kind of Tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into Imitation.
Many of these great natural Genius's that were never disciplined and broken by Rules of Art, are to be found among the Ancients, and in particular among those of the more Eastern Parts of the World.
Homer
has innumerable Flights that
Virgil
was not able to reach, and in the Old Testament we find several Passages more elevated and sublime than any in
Homer
. At the same time that we allow a greater and more daring Genius to the Ancients, we must own that the greatest of them very much failed in, or, if you will, that they were very much above the Nicety and Correctness of the Moderns. In their Similitudes and Allusions, provided there was a Likeness, they did not much trouble themselves about the Decency of the Comparison: Thus
Solomon
resembles the Nose of his Beloved to the Tower of
Libanon
which looketh toward
Damascus
; as the Coming of a Thief in the Night, is a Similitude of the same kind in the New Testament. It would be endless to make Collections of this Nature;
Homer
illustrates one of his Heroes encompassed with the Enemy by an Ass in a Field of Corn that has his Sides belaboured by all the Boys of the Village without stirring a Foot for it: and another of them tossing to and fro in his Bed and burning with Resentment, to a Piece of Flesh broiled on the Coals. This particular Failure in the Ancients, opens a large Field of Raillery to the little Wits, who can laugh at an Indecency but not relish the Sublime in these Sorts of Writings. The present Emperor of
Persia
, conformable to this Eastern way of Thinking, amidst a great many pompous Titles, denominates himself The Sun of Glory and the Nutmeg of Delight. In short, to cut off all Cavilling against the Ancients and particularly those of the warmer Climates who had most Heat and Life in their Imaginations, we are to consider that the Rule of observing what the
French
call the
Bienséance
in an Allusion, has been found out of latter Years, and in the colder Regions of the World; where we would make some Amends for our want of Force and Spirit, by a scrupulous Nicety and Exactness in our Compositions.
Our Countryman
Shakespear
was a remarkable Instance of this first kind of great Genius's.
I cannot quit this Head without observing that
Pindar
was a great Genius of the first Class, who was hurried on by a natural Fire and Impetuosity to vast Conceptions of things and noble Sallies of Imagination. At the same time, can any thing be more ridiculous than for Men of a sober and moderate Fancy to imitate this Poet's Way of Writing in those monstrous Compositions which go among us under the Name of Pindaricks? When I see People copying Works which, as
Horace
has represented them, are singular in their Kind, and inimitable; when I see Men following Irregularities by Rule, and by the little Tricks of Art straining after the most unbounded Flights of Nature, I cannot but apply to them that Passage in
Terence
:
... Incerta hæc si tu postulesRatione certâ facere, nihilo plus agas,Quàm si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias.
In
short a modern Pindarick Writer, compared with
Pindar
, is like a Sister among the Camisars
2
compared with
Virgil
's Sibyl: There is the Distortion, Grimace, and outward Figure, but nothing of that divine Impulse which raises the Mind above its self, and makes the Sounds more than human.
Thereisanother kind of great Genius's which I shall place in a second Class, not as I think them inferior to the first, but only for Distinction's sake, as they are of a different kind. This
3
second Class of great Genius's are those that have formed themselves by Rules, and submitted the Greatness of their natural Talents to the Corrections and Restraints of Art. Such among the
Greeks
were
Plato
and
Aristotle
; among the
Romans
,
Virgil
and
Tully
; among the
English
,
Milton
and Sir
Francis Bacon
.
4
The Genius
in
both these Classes of Authors may be equally great, but shews itself
after
5
a different Manner. In the first it is like a rich Soil in a happy Climate, that produces a whole Wilderness of noble Plants rising in a thousand beautiful Landskips, without any certain Order or Regularity. In the other it is the same rich Soil under the same happy Climate, that has been laid out in Walks and Parterres, and cut into Shape and Beauty by the Skill of the Gardener.
The great Danger in these latter kind of Genius's, is, lest they cramp their own Abilities too much by Imitation, and form themselves altogether upon Models, without giving the full Play to their own natural Parts. An Imitation of the best Authors is not to compare with a good Original; and I believe we may observe that very few Writers make an extraordinary Figure in the World, who have not something in their Way of thinking or expressing themselves that is peculiar to them, and entirely their own.
6
It
is
odd to consider what great Genius's are sometimes thrown away upon Trifles.
I
once saw a Shepherd, says a famous
Italian
Author,
who
7
used to divert himself in his Solitudes with tossing up Eggs and catching them again without breaking them: In which he had arrived to so great a degree of Perfection, that he would keep up four at a time for several Minutes together playing in the Air, and falling into his Hand by Turns. I think, says the Author, I never saw a greater Severity than in this Man's Face; for by his wonderful Perseverance and Application, he had contracted the Seriousness and Gravity of a Privy-Councillor; and I could not but reflect with my self, that the same Assiduity and Attention, had they been rightly applied, might have made him a greater Mathematician than
Archimedes
.
C.
Footnote 1:
that
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Footnote 2:
The Camisars, or French Prophets, originally from the Cevennes, came into England in 1707. With violent agitations and distortions of body they prophesied and claimed also the power to work miracles; even venturing to prophesy that Dr Ernes, a convert of theirs, should rise from the dead five months after burial.
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Footnote 3:
The
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Footnote 4:
Not a new paragraph in the first issue.
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Footnote 5:
in
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Footnote 6:
Not a new paragraph in the first issue.
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Footnote 7:
that
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Contents
Ipse dies agitat festos: Fususque per herbam,Ignis ubi in medio et Socii cratera coronant,Te libans, Lenæe, vocat: pecorisque magistrisVelocis Jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo,Corporaque agresti nudat prædura Palæstra.Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini,Hanc Remus et Frater: Sic fortis Etruria crevit,Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma.Virg.G. 2.translation
I am glad that my late going into the Country has encreased the Number of my Correspondents, one of whom sends me the following Letter.
Sir,'Though you are pleased to retire from us so soon into the City, I hope you will not think the Affairs of the Country altogether unworthy of your Inspection for the future. I had the Honour of seeing your short Face at SirRoger De Coverley's, and have ever since thought your Person and Writings both extraordinary. Had you stayed there a few Days longer you would have seen a CountryWake, which you know in most Parts ofEnglandis theEve-Feast of the Dedication of our Churches. I was last Week at one of these Assemblies which was held in a neighbouring Parish; where I found theirGreencovered with a promiscuous Multitude of all Ages and both Sexes, who esteem one another more or less the following Part of the Year according as they distinguish themselves at this Time. The whole Company were in their Holiday Cloaths, and divided into several Parties, all of them endeavouring to shew themselves in those Exercises wherein they excelled, and to gain the Approbation of the Lookers on.I found a Ring of Cudgel-Players, who were breaking one another's Heads in order to make some Impression on their Mistresses Hearts. I observed a lusty young Fellow, who had the Misfortune of a broken Pate; but what considerably added to the Anguish of the Wound, was his over-hearing an old Man, who shook his Head and said,That he questioned now if black Kate would marry him these three Years. I was diverted from a farther Observation of these Combatants, by a Foot-ball Match, which was on the other side of theGreen; whereTom Shortbehaved himself so well, that most People seemed to agreeit was impossible that he should remain a Batchelor till the next Wake. Having played many a Match my self, I could have looked longer on this Sport, had I not observed a Country Girl, who was posted on an Eminence at some Distance from me, and was making so many odd Grimaces, and writhing and distorting her whole Body in so strange a Manner, as made me very desirous to know the Meaning of it. Upon my coming up to her, I found that she was overlooking a Ring of Wrestlers, and that her Sweetheart, a Person of small Stature, was contending with an huge brawny Fellow, who twirled him about, and shook the little Man so violently, that by a secret Sympathy of Hearts it produced all those Agitations in the Person of his Mistress, who I dare say, likeCæliainShakespearon the same Occasion, could havewished herself invisible to catch the strong Fellow by the Leg. The Squire of the Parish treats the whole Company every Year with a Hogshead of Ale; and proposes aBeaver-Hatas a Recompense to him who gives mostFalls. This has raised such a Spirit of Emulation in the Youth of the Place, that some of them have rendered themselves very expert at this Exercise; and I was often surmised to see a Fellow's Heels fly up, by a Trip which was given him so smartly that I could scarce discern it. I found that the old Wrestlers seldom entered the Ring, till some one was grown formidable by having thrown two or three of his Opponents; but kept themselves as it were in a reserved Body to defend the Hat, which is always hung up by the Person who gets it in one of the most Conspicuous Parts of the House, and looked upon by the whole Family as something redounding much more to their Honour than a Coat of Arms. There was a Fellow who was so busy in regulating all the Ceremonies, and seemed to carry such an Air of Importance in his Looks, that I could not help inquiring who he was, and was immediately answered,That he did not value himself upon nothing, for that he and his Ancestors had won so many Hats, that his Parlour looked like a Haberdashers Shop:However this Thirst of Glory in them all, was the Reason that no one Man stoodLord of the Ringfor above threeFallswhile I was amongst them.The young Maids, who were not Lookers on at these Exercises, were themselves engaged in some Diversion; and upon my asking a Farmer's Son of my own Parish what he was gazing at with so much Attention, he told me,That he was seeingBetty Welch, whom I knew to be his Sweet-Heart,pitch a Bar.In short, I found the men endeavoured to shew the Women they were no Cowards, and that the whole Company strived to recommend themselves to each other, by making it appear that they were all in a perfect State of Health, and fit to undergo any Fatigues of bodily Labour.Your Judgment upon this Method ofLoveandGallantry, as it is at present practised amongst us in the Country, will very much oblige,Sir, Yours, &c.'
If I would here put on the Scholar and Politician, I might inform my Readers how these bodily Exercises or Games were formerly encouraged in all the Commonwealths of
Greece
; from whence the
Romans
afterwards borrowed their
Pentathlum
, which was composed of
Running, Wrestling, Leaping, Throwing
, and
Boxing
, tho' the Prizes were generally nothing but a Crown of Cypress or Parsley, Hats not being in fashion in those Days: That there is an old Statute, which obliges every Man in
England
, having such an Estate, to keep and exercise the long Bow; by which Means our Ancestors excelled all other Nations in the Use of that Weapon, and we had all the real Advantages, without the Inconvenience of a standing Army: And that I once met with a Book of Projects, in which the Author considering to what noble Ends that Spirit of Emulation, which so remarkably shews it self among our common People in these Wakes, might be directed, proposes that for the Improvement of all our handicraft Trades there should be annual Prizes set up for such Persons as were most excellent in their several Arts. But laying aside all these political Considerations, which might tempt me to pass the Limits of my Paper, I confess the greatest Benefit and Convenience that I can observe in these Country Festivals, is the bringing young People together, and giving them an Opportunity of shewing themselves in the most advantageous Light. A Country Fellow that throws his Rival upon his Back, has generally as good Success with their common Mistress; as nothing is more usual than for a nimble-footed Wench to get a Husband at the same time she wins a Smock. Love and Marriages are the natural Effects of these anniversary Assemblies. I must therefore very much approve the Method by which my Correspondent tells me each Sex endeavours to recommend it self to the other, since nothing seems more likely to promise a healthy Offspring or a happy Cohabitation. And I believe I may assure my Country Friend, that there has been many a Court Lady who would be contented to exchange her crazy young Husband for
Tom Short
, and several Men of Quality who would have parted with a tender Yoke-fellow for
Black Kate
.
I
am the more pleased with having
Love
made the principal End and Design of these Meetings, as it seems to be most agreeable to the Intent for which they were at first instituted, as we are informed by the learned Dr.
Kennet
1
, with whose Words I shall conclude my present Paper.
These Wakes, says he,were in Imitation of the ancientGreek (transliterated): agápaior Love-Feasts; and were first established inEnglandby PopeGregorythe Great, who in an Epistle toMelitusthe Abbot gave Order that they should be kept in Sheds or Arbories made up with Branches and Boughs of Trees round the Church.He adds,That this laudable Custom of Wakes prevailed for many Ages, till the nice Puritans began to exclaim against it as a Remnant of Popery; and by degrees the precise Humour grew so popular, that at anExeterAssizes the Lord Chief BaronWaltermade an Order for the Suppression of all Wakes; but on BishopLaud'scomplaining of this innovating Humour, the King commanded the Order to be reversed.
X.
Footnote 1:
Parochial Antiquities
(1795), pp. 610, 614.
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Contents
... Servetur ad imum,Qualis ab incœpto processerit, et sibi constet.Hor.translation
Nothing that is not a real Crime makes a Man appear so contemptible and little in the Eyes of the World as Inconstancy, especially when it regards Religion or Party. In either of these Cases, tho' a Man perhaps does but his Duty in changing his Side, he not only makes himself hated by those he left, but is seldom heartily esteemed by those he comes over to.
In these great Articles of Life, therefore, a Man's Conviction ought to be very strong, and if possible so well timed that worldly Advantages may seem to have no Share in it, or Mankind will be ill natured enough to think he does not change Sides out of Principle, but either out of Levity of Temper or Prospects of Interest. Converts and Renegadoes of all Kinds should take particular care to let the World see they act upon honourable Motives; or whatever Approbations they may receive from themselves, and Applauses from those they converse with, they may be very well assured that they are the Scorn of all good Men, and the publick Marks of Infamy and Derision.
Irresolution
on the Schemes of Life
which
1
offer themselves to our Choice, and Inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest and most universal Causes of all our Disquiet and Unhappiness. When
Ambition
2
pulls
one
Way, Interest another, Inclination a third, and perhaps Reason contrary to all, a Man is likely to pass his Time but ill who has so many different Parties to please. When the Mind hovers among such a Variety of Allurements, one had better settle on a Way of Life that is not the very best we might have chosen, than grow old without determining our Choice, and go out of the World as the greatest Part of Mankind do, before we have resolved how to live in it. There is but one Method of setting our selves at Rest in this Particular, and that is by adhering stedfastly to one great End as the chief and ultimate Aim of all our Pursuits. If we are firmly resolved to live up to the Dictates of Reason, without any Regard to Wealth, Reputation, or the like Considerations, any more than as they fall in with our principal Design, we may go through Life with Steadiness and Pleasure; but if we act by several broken Views, and will not only be virtuous, but wealthy, popular, and every thing that has a Value set upon it by the World, we shall live and die in Misery and Repentance.
One would take more than ordinary Care to guard ones self against this particular Imperfection, because it is that which our Nature very strongly inclines us to; for if we examine ourselves throughly, we shall find that we are the most changeable Beings in the Universe. In respect of our Understanding, we often embrace and reject the very same Opinions; whereas Beings above and beneath us have probably no Opinions at all, or at least no Wavering and Uncertainties in those they have. Our Superiors are guided by Intuition, and our Inferiors by Instinct. In respect of our Wills, we fall into Crimes and recover out of them, are amiable or odious in the Eyes of our great Judge, and pass our whole Life in offending and asking Pardon. On the contrary, the Beings underneath us are not capable of sinning, nor those above us of repenting. The one is out of the Possibilities of Duty, and the other fixed in an eternal Course of Sin, or an eternal Course of Virtue.
There is scarce a State of Life, or Stage in it which does not produce Changes and Revolutions in the Mind of Man. Our Schemes of Thought in Infancy are lost in those of Youth; these too take a different Turn in Manhood, till old Age often leads us back into our former Infancy. A new Title or an unexpected Success throws us out of ourselves, and in a manner destroys our Identity. A cloudy Day, or a little Sunshine, have as great an Influence on many Constitutions, as the most real Blessings or Misfortunes. A Dream varies our Being, and changes our Condition while it lasts; and every Passion, not to mention Health and Sickness, and the greater Alterations in Body and Mind, makes us appear almost different Creatures. If a Man is so distinguished among other Beings by this Infirmity, what can we think of such as make themselves remarkable for it even among their own Species? It is a very trifling Character to be one of the most variable Beings of the most variable Kind, especially if we consider that He who is the great Standard of Perfection has in him no Shadow of Change, but is the same Yesterday, To-day, and for ever.
As this Mutability of Temper and Inconsistency with our selves is the greatest Weakness of human Nature, so it makes the Person who is remarkable for it in a very particular Manner more ridiculous than any other Infirmity whatsoever, as it sets him in a greater Variety of foolish Lights, and distinguishes him from himself by an Opposition of party-coloured Characters. The most humourous Character in
Horace
is founded upon this Unevenness of Temper and Irregularity of Conduct.
... Sardus habebatIlle Tigellius hoc: Cæsar qui cogere possetSi peteret per amicitiam patris, atque suam, nonQuidquam proficeret: Si collibuisset, ab ovoUsque ad mala citaret, Io Bacche, modò summâVoce, modò hâc, resonat quæ; chordis quatuor ima.Nil æquale homini fuit illi: Sæpe velut quiCurrebat fugiens hostem: Persæpe velut quiJunonis sacra ferret: Habebat sæpe ducentos,Sæpe decem servos: Modò reges atque tetrarchas,Omnia magna loquens: Modò sit mihi mensa tripes, etConcha salis puri, et toga, quæ defendere frigus,Quamvis crassa, queat. Decies centena dedissesHuic parco paucis contento, quinque diebusNil erat in loculis. Noctes vigilabat ad ipsumManè: Diem totam stertebat. Nil fuit unquamSic impar sibi ...Hor.Sat. 3,Lib. 1.
Instead
of translating this Passage in
Horace
, I shall entertain my
English
Reader with the Description of a Parallel Character, that is wonderfully well finished by Mr.
Dryden
3
, and raised upon the same Foundation.
In the first Rank of these didZimristand:A Man so various, that he seem'd to beNot one, but all Mankind's Epitome.Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong;Was ev'ry thing by Starts, and nothing long;But, in the Course of one revolving Moon,Was Chemist, Fidler, Statesman, and Buffoon:Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking:Besides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking.Blest Madman, who cou'd ev'ry flour employ,With something New to wish, or to enjoy!
C.
Footnote 1:
that
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Footnote 2:
Honour
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Footnote 3:
In his
Absalom and Achitophel.
The character of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
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