Literary Character of Men of Genius | Page 2

compelled to refrain in a great measure from all mental
labour, and incapacitated from the use of the pen and the book, these
works, notwithstanding, have received many important corrections,
having been read over to me with critical precision.
Amid this partial darkness I am not left without a distant hope, nor a
present consolation; and to HER who has so often lent to me the light
of her eyes, the intelligence of her voice, and the careful work of her
hand, the author must ever owe "the debt immense" of paternal
gratitude.

CONTENTS. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER I.
Of literary characters, and of the lovers of literature and art. 11
CHAPTER II.

Of the adversaries of literary men among themselves.--Matter-of-fact
men, and men of wit.--The political economists.--Of those who
abandon their studies.--Men in office.--The arbiters of public
opinion.--Those who treat the pursuits of literature with levity. 14
CHAPTER III.
Of artists, in the history of men of literary genius.--Their habits and
pursuits analogous.--The nature of their genius is similar in their
distinct works.--Shown by their parallel areas, and by a common end
pursued by both. 20
CHAPTER IV.
Of natural genius.--Minds constitutionally different cannot have an
equal aptitude.--Genius not the result of habit and education.--
Originates in peculiar qualities of the mind.--The predisposition of
genius.--A substitution for the white paper of Locke. 24
CHAPTER V.
Youth of genius.--Its first impulses may be illustrated by its subsequent
actions.--Parents have another association of the man of genius than
we.--Of genius, its first habits.--Its melancholy. --Its reveries.--Its love
of solitude.--Its disposition to repose. --Of a youth distinguished by his
equals.--Feebleness of its first attempts.--Of genius not discoverable
even in manhood.--The education of the youth may not be that of his
genius.--An unsettled impulse, querulous till it finds its true
occupation.--With some, curiosity as intense a faculty as
invention.--What the youth first applies to is commonly his delight
afterwards.--Facts of the decisive character of genius. 31
CHAPTER VI.
The first studies.--The self-educated are marked by stubborn
peculiarities.--Their errors.--Their improvement from the neglect or
contempt they incur.--The history of self-education in Moses

Mendelssohn.--Friends usually prejudicial in the youth of genius. --A
remarkable interview between Petrarch in his first studies, and his
literary adviser.--Exhortation. 55
CHAPTER VII.
Of the irritability of genius.--Genius in society often in a state of
suffering.--Equality of temper more prevalent among men of
letters.--Of the occupation of making a great name.--Anxieties of the
most successful.--Of the inventors.--Writers of learning.-- Writers of
taste. --Artists. 69
CHAPTER VIII.
The spirit of literature and the spirit of society.--The inventors.
--Society offers seduction and not reward to men of genius.--The
notions of persons of fashion of men of genius.--The habitudes of the
man of genius distinct from those of the man of society.-- Study,
meditation, and enthusiasm, the progress of genius.--The disagreement
between the men of the world and the literary character. 89
CHAPTER IX.
Conversations of men of genius.--Their deficient agreeableness may
result from qualities which conduce to their greatness.--Slow-minded
men not the dullest.--The conversationists not the ablest writers. --Their
true excellence in conversation consists of associations with their
pursuits. 99
CHAPTER X.
Literary solitude.--Its necessity.--Its pleasures.--Of visitors by
profession.--Its inconveniences. 109
CHAPTER XI.
The meditations of Genius.--A work on the Art of Meditation not yet

produced.--Predisposing the mind.--Imagination awakens imagination.
--Generating feelings by music.--Slight habits.--Darkness and silence,
by suspending the exercise of our senses, increase the vivacity of our
conceptions.--The arts of memory.--Memory the foundation of
genius.--Inventions by several to preserve their own moral and literary
character.--And to assist their studies.--The meditations of genius
depend on habit.--Of the night-time.--A day of meditation should
precede a day of composition.--Works of magnitude from slight
conceptions.--Of thoughts never written.--The art of meditation
exercised at all hours and places.--Continuity of attention the source of
philosophical discoveries. --Stillness of meditation the first state of
existence in genius. 116
CHAPTER XII.
The enthusiasm of genius.--A state of mind resembling a waking dream
distinct from reverie.--The ideal presence distinguished from the real
presence.--The senses are really affected in the ideal world, proved by a
variety of instances.--Of the rapture or sensation of deep study in art,
science, and literature. --Of perturbed feelings, in delirium.--In extreme
endurance of attention.--And in visionary illusions.--Enthusiasts in
literature and art.--Of their self-immolations. 136
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the jealousy of genius.--Jealousy often proportioned to the degree of
genius.--A perpetual fever among authors and artists. --Instances of its
incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.--Of a peculiar
species, where the fever consumes the sufferer without its malignancy.
154
CHAPTER XIV.
Want of mutual esteem among men of genius often originates in a
deficiency of analogous ideas.--It is not always envy or jealousy which
induces men of genius to undervalue each other. 159

CHAPTER XV.
Self-praise of genius.--The love of praise instinctive in the nature of
genius.--A high opinion of themselves necessary