Literary Character of Men of Genius | Page 3

for their great
designs.--The ancients openly claimed their own praise.--And several
moderns.--An author knows more of his merits than his readers.--And
less of his defects.--Authors versatile in their admiration and their
malignity. 162
CHAPTER XVI.
The domestic life of genius.--Defects of great compositions attributed
to domestic infelicities.--The home of the literary character should be
the abode of repose and silence.--Of the father.--Of the mother.--Of
family genius.--Men of genius not more respected than other men in
their domestic circle.--The cultivators of science and art do not meet on
equal terms with others, in domestic life.--Their neglect of those around
them. --Often accused of imaginary crimes. 173
CHAPTER XVII.
The poverty of literary men.--Poverty, a relative quality.--Of the
poverty of literary men in what degree desirable.--Extreme
poverty.--Task-work.--Of gratuitous works.--A project to provide
against the worst state of poverty among literary men. 186
CHAPTER XVIII.
The matrimonial state of literature.--Matrimony said not to be
well-suited to the domestic life of genius.--Celibacy a concealed cause
of the early querulousness of men of genius.--Of unhappy unions.--Not
absolutely necessary that the wife should be a literary woman.--Of the
docility and susceptibility of the higher female character.--A picture of
a literary wife. 198
CHAPTER XIX.

Literary friendships.--In early life.--Different from those of men of the
world.--They suffer in unrestrained communication of their ideas, and
bear reprimands and exhortations.--Unity of feelings.--A sympathy not
of manners but of feelings.--Admit of dissimilar characters.--Their
peculiar glory.--Their sorrow. 209
CHAPTER XX.
The literary and the personal character.--The personal dispositions of
an author may be the reverse of those which appear in his
writings.--Erroneous conceptions of the character of distant
authors.--Paradoxical appearances in the history of genius.--Why the
character of the man may be opposite to that of his writings. 217
CHAPTER XXI.
The man of letters.--Occupies an intermediate station between authors
and readers.--His solitude described.--Often the father of
genius.--Atticus, a man of letters of antiquity.--The perfect character of
a modern man of letters exhibited in Peiresc.-- Their utility to authors
and artists. 226
CHAPTER XXII.
Literary old age still learning.--Influence of late studies in
life.--Occupations in advanced age of the literary character. --Of
literary men who have died at their studies. 238
CHAPTER XXIII.
Universality of genius.--Limited notion of genius entertained by the
ancients.--Opposite faculties act with diminished force. --Men of
genius excel only in a single art. 244
CHAPTER XXIV.
Literature an avenue to glory.--An intellectual nobility not chimerical,

but created by public opinion.--Literary honours of various
nations.--Local associations with the memory of the man of genius. 248
CHAPTER XXV.
Influence of authors on society, and of society on authors. --National
tastes a source of literary prejudices.--True genius always the organ of
its nation.--Master-writers preserve the distinct national
character.--Genius the organ of the state of the age.--Causes of its
suppression in a people.--Often invented, but neglected.--The natural
gradations of genius.--Men of genius produce their usefulness in
privacy--The public mind is now the creation of the public
writer.--Politicians affect to deny this principle.--Authors stand
between the governors and the governed.--A view of the solitary author
in his study.--They create an epoch in history.--Influence of popular
authors.--The immortality of thought.--The family of genius illustrated
by their genealogy. 258

LITERARY MISCELLANIES.
Miscellanists 281
Prefaces 286
Style 291
Goldsmith and Johnson 294
Self-characters 295
On reading 298
On habituating ourselves to an individual pursuit 302
On novelty in literature 305
Vers de Société 308

The genius of Molière 310
The sensibility of Racine 325
Of Sterne 332
Hume, Robertson, and Birch 340
Of voluminous works incomplete by the deaths of the authors 350
Of domestic novelties at first condemned 355
Domesticity; or a dissertation on servants 364
Printed letters in the vernacular idiom 375

CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST.
Advertisement 383
Of the first modern assailants of the character of James I., Burnet,
Bolingbroke and Pope, Harris, Macaulay, and Walpole 386
His pedantry 388
His polemical studies 389
--how these were political 392
The Hampton Court conference 393
Of some of his writings 398
Popular superstitions of the age 400
The King's habits of life those of a man of letters 402
Of the facility and copiousness of his composition 404

Of his eloquence 405
Of his wit 406
Specimens of his humour, and observations on human life 407
Some evidences of his sagacity in the discovery of truth 410
Of his "Basilicon Doron" 413
Of his idea of a tyrant and a king 414
Advice to Prince Henry in the choice of his servants and associates 415
Describes the Revolutionists of his time 416
Of the nobility of Scotland 417
Of colonising _ib._
Of merchants 418
Regulations for the prince's manners and habits _ib._
Of his idea of the royal prerogative 421
The lawyers' idea of the same _ib._
Of his elevated conception of the kingly character 425
His design in issuing "The Book of Sports"