Beneath its force the tallest oaks gîve way, And gaping groves admit à fudden day; Roots, leaves, and boughs are hurry'd o'er the wood, Thefe lines are, on the whole, good; yet every reader of taste and learning must observe in them an unnatural mixture of little and great circumftances, which is not to be imputed to Statius. • Nor art nor nature can the war fuftain, Mounds fail, and damms are interpos'd in vain." Nor art nor nature has the force To ftop its fteady courfe ; Nor Alps nor Pyrenæans keep it out, Nor fortify'd redoubt.' DENNIS. Nothing more remains to be faid, except that Mr. Lewis has accompanied his tranflation with notes explanatory and critical, in which that little particle I occurs too often, and in which he has been too curious in explaining the fabulous hiftories of the ancients. On the whole, however, the work deserves approbation; and we can by no means fubfcribe to the author's modeft declaration in his preface, that his chief merit consists in having had the patience to go through with it, at a time of life which is too often fquandered away in a circle of follies and amusements.' VII. An Essay on Original Genius; and its various Modes of Exertion in Philofophy and the Fine Arts, particularly in Poetry. 800. Pr. 6s. Dilly. HOUGH this writer treats of all the different provinces chiefly to poetry. In his firit fection he confiders the objects and ingredients of genius, and the efficacy of thofe ingredients united in compofition. We heartily with the author had changed the title of this fection, which gives us an idea of an apothecary's prefcription. We all know that genius contains certain characters, but we entertain fome doubts, whether the ingredients of genius is a term critically admiffible in writing. Paffing over thefe little inaccuracies, however, if they are fuch, we shall attend our author in his defcriptions of imagination, judgment, and tafte, which he very properly terms the diftinguishing faculties of the human mind, and thinks principally conftitute genius. Of these he gives the preference to imagination. Imagination (fays he) is that faculty whereby the mind not only reflects on its own operations, but which affembles the various various ideas conveyed to the understanding by the canal of fenfation, and treafured up in the repofitory of the memory, compounding or disjoining them at pleafure; and which, by its plaftic power of inventing new affociations of ideas, and of combining them with infinite variety, is enabled to prefent a creation of its own, and to exhibit fcenes and objects which never exifted in nature. So indifpenfibly neceffary is this faculty in the compofition of Genius, that all the discoveries in fcience, and all the inventions and improvements in art, if we except fuch as have arifen from mere accident, derive their origin from its vigorous exertion. At the fame time it must be confeffed, that all the falfe and fallacious fyftems of the former, and all the irregular and illegitimate performances in the latter, which have ever been obtruded upon mankind, may be juftly imputed to the unbounded extravagance of the fame faculty: fuch effects are the natural consequences of an exuberant imagination, without any proportionable share of the reasoning talent. It is evidently neceffary therefore, in order to render the productions of Genius regular and juft, as well as elegant and ingenious, that the difcerning and coercive power of judgment fhould mark and reftrain the excurfions of a wanton imagination ; in other words, that the aufterity of reafon fhould blend i:felf with the gaiety of the graces. Here then we have another ingredient of Genius; an ingredient effential to its conftitution, and without which it cannot poffibly be exhibited to full advantage, even an accurate and penetrating judgment.' Our author next presents us with definitions of judgment and taste. He fuppofes two perfons, the one a man of judgment, the other of tafte, to examine the merit of fome mafterly production of art; that admired piece of hiftory-painting, for inftance, of the Crucifixion, by Michael Angelo; and he obferves their different procedure, and the very different remarks they will make. The former (continues he) measures with his eye the exact proportion of every figure in the piece; he confiders how far the rules of art are obferved in the defign and ordonnance; whether the group of subordinate figures naturally lead the eye to the capital one, and fix the attention principally upon it; and whether the artist has given a proper variety of expreffion to the countenances of the several spectators. Upon discovering that the painter had exactly conformed to the rules. of his art in all these particulars, he would not only applaud his judgment, but would also give teftimony to his maftery and fkill; without, however, having any true feeling of those uncommon beauties which conftitute real merit in the art of painting. Such would be the procedure and remarks of the man of mere judgment. Confider now, on the other hand, in VOL. XXIII. May, 1767. what B b what a different manner the man of taste will proceed, and in what manner he will be affected. Instead of attending, in the firft place, to the just proportions of the various figures exhibited in the draught, however neceffary to be observed; instead of remarking, with approbation, the judgment and ingenuity difplayed by the artist in the uniformity of defign, and in the regularity and juftnefs that appear in the difpofition of the feveral figures of the piece; he fixes his eye upon the prin cipal one, in which he obferves the various contorfions of the countenance, the natural expreffions of agonifing pain, mixed however with an air of divine benignity and compaffion. Then he paffes on to the contemplation of the inferior and subordinate figures, in which he perceives a variety of oppofite paffions, of rage and terror, of admiration and pity, strongly marked in their different countenances; and feels the correfponding emotions in their utmost strength which those several paffions are calculated to infpire. In a word, the man of judgment approves of and admires what is merely mechanical in the piece; the man of tafte is ftruck with what could only be effected by the power of Genius. Wherever nature is juftly reprefented, wherever the features of any one paffion are forcibly expreffed, to thofe features his attention is attracted, and he dwells on the contemplation of them with intenfe and exquifite pleasure. The fenfations of the former are cool, weak, and unaffecting throughout; thofe of the latter are warm, vivid, and deeply interefting; or, to speak more properly, the one reafons, the other feels. But as no reasoning can enable a man to form an idea of what is really an object of fenfation, the most penetrating judgment can never supply the want of an exquifite fenfibility of tafte. In order therefore to relish and to judge of the productions of Genius and of Art, there must be an internal perceptive power, exquifitely fenfible to all the impreffions which fuch productions are capable of making on a fufceptible mind.' Without intending to difcourage this author, who we are inclined to fufpect is a young one, we must be of opinion, that the operations he defcribes in the man of judgment are pre cifely thofe which contribute to form the character of a man of taste; while the properties he allows to the latter, without having the leaft connection with tafte, only regard feelings. We are furprized that this writer fhould admit the word judg ment in this paffage. If he had been acquainted with painting, he muft have known that all tafte is comprehended in judg ment, and that the man of tafte is an inferior connoiffeur compared to the man of judgment. We wifh likewife he had not been fo unlucky as to have fingled out the Crucifixion of Mi chael chael Angelo, as an admired piece of hiftory-painting. Connoiffeurs of all kinds agree, that it is a very forry performance, and fo unworthy Angelo's pencil, that fome of the best judges have doubted whether he was the painter. Our author next proceeds to the usual indications of genius, as exemplified in Taffo, Pope, Milton, in poetry; and Quin. tilian in eloquence. On this fubject, however, he gives us nothing new; for he only obferves, that the three poets we have mentioned wrote poetry when they were very young. We know no reason why he fixes upon Quintilian as an example of genius in eloquence, and omits Cicero, who undoubtedly had a better right to that character, and to whom Quintilian was chiefly indebted for his most valuable compofition; we mean his Institutes. If he was the author, as is generally thought, of the Declamations which go under his name, he was far from being fo good an orator as a critic. This writer afterwards confiders the indications of genius in a musician and an architect; and his obfervations on both merit the reader's attention. In his third fection he treats of the connection between genius, wit, and humour, which he distinguishes with accuracy and precifion. He excludes Swift from being a genius, in the fame fense as Offian was not a wit. He thinks that Shakespeare was both, and that Dr. Young united them together in a degree of perfection that has not been equalled fince Shakespeare's time. If we may credit him, Mr. Pope eftablished his character both as a man of genius and wit by his Rape of the Lock; not on account of the vein of wit which runs through that poem, but for his inventing the employment and nature of the Sylphs. The author's fourth section treats of the mutual influence of imagination on tafte, and of tafte on imagination, confidered as ingredients in the compofition of genius. The fifth fection confiders the different degrees of genius, and its various modes of exertion. Some perfons (fays he) poffefs fuch force and compass of imagination, as to be able by the power of this faculty to conceive and prefent to their own minds, in one diftinct view, all the numerous and moft diftant relations of the objects on which they employ it; by which means they are qualified to make great improvements and difcoveries in the arts and fciences. The mind in this cafe has recourse to and relies on its own fund. Confcious of its native energy, it delights to expand its faculties by the moft vigorous exertion. Ranging through the unbounded regions of nature and of art, it explores unbeaten tracks of thought, catches a glimpfe of fome objects which lie far beyond the sphere of ordinary obfervation, and obtains a full and diftinct view of others. Bbz • We We may farther obferve, that Genius may, in a very con fiderable though much lefs proportion, be displayed in the illuftration of thofe truths, or the imitation of thofe models, which it was incapable originally to difcover or invent. To comprehend and explain the one, or to exprefs a juft refemblance of the other, fuppofes and requires no contemptible degree of genius in the author or artift who fucceeds in the attempt. Thus we allow Maclaurin, who has explained the principles of Newton's philofophy, and Strange, who has copied the Cartoons of Raphael, to have been both of them men of Genius in their respective profeffions, though not men of original Genius; for the former did not poffefs that compass of imagination, and that depth of difcernment, which were neceffary to difcover the doctrines of the Newtonian fyftem; nor the latter that fertility and force of imagination, that were requifite to invent the defign, and exprefs the dignity, grace, and energy, displayed in the originals of the Italian painter. : A certain degree of Genius is likewife manifefted in the more exquifite productions of the mechanical arts. To conftitute an excellent watchmaker, or even carpenter, some share of this quality is requifite. In moft of the arts indeed, of which we are speaking, industry, it must be granted, will, in a great measure, fupply the place of Genius; and dexterity of performance may be acquired by habit and fedulous application yet in others of a more elegant kind, thefe will by no means altogether fuperfede its ufe and exercife; fince it can alone bestow thofe finishing touches that bring credit and reputation to the workman. Every ingenious artist, who would execute his piece with uncommon nicety and neatness, must really work from his imagination. The model of the piece muft exift in his own mind. Therefore the more vivid and perfect his ideas are of this, the more exquifite and complete will be the copy. • In fome of the mechanical, and in all the liberal arts, it is not only neceffary that artifts fhould poffefs a certain fhare of imagination, in order to attain excellence in their different profeffions; but that share of which they are poffeffed, muft principally turn upon one particular object. It is this bias of the mind to one individual art rather than another, which both indicates and conftitutes what we commonly call a Genius for it. This bias appears in fome perfons very early, and very remarkably; and when it does fo, it ought doubtlefs to be regarded as the fovereign decree of Nature, marking out the ftation and destiny of her children. • It cannot be denied, that a great degree of Genius is difcovered in the invention of mechanical arts, efpecially if they are |