any man to place himself in this rank of understanding, and fancy that he is born to be illustrious without labour, than to omit the care of husbandry, and expect from his ground the blossoms of Arabia.

Rambler, vol. 4, p. 50.

Misapplied genius most commonly proves

ridiculous.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 231.

There are men who seem to think nothing so much characteristic of genius, as to do common things in an uncommon way; like Hudibras, to tell the clock by Algebra, or like the lady in Dr. Young's Satire, "to drink tea by stratagem.” Ibid, vol. 1, p. 202.

Great powers cannot be exerted but when great exigencies make them necessary. Great exigen cies can happen but seldom, and therefore those qualities which have a claim to the veneration of mankind, lie hid, for the most part, like subterranean treasures, over which the foot passes as on common ground, till necessity breaks open the golden cavern.

Ibid, p. 287.

It seems to have been, in all ages, the pride of wit to show how it could exalt the low, and amplify the little. To speak not inadequately of things really and naturally great, is a task not only difficult but disagreeable, because the writer is degraded in his own eyes by standing in comparison with his subject, to which he can hope to add nothing from his imagination. But it is a perpetual triumph of fancy to expand a scanty theme, to raise glittering ideas from obcsure properties,

perties, and to produce to the world an object of wonder, to which nature had contributed little. To this ambition, perhaps, we owe the Frogs of Homer, the Gnat and the Bees of Virgil, the Butterfly of Spencer, the Shadow of Woverus, and the Quincunx of Brown.

Life of Sir T. Brown, p. 266.

Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus; and a writer naturally pleases himself with a performance which owes nothing to the subject.

Life of Waller.

By the general consent of critics, the first praise of GENIUS is due to the writer of an epic poem, as it requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions. Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason. Epic poetry undertakes to teach the most important truths by the most pleasing precept, and therefore relates some great event in the most affecting manner. History must supply the writer with the rudiments of narration, which he must improve and exalt by a nobler art, animate by dramatic energy, and diversify by retrospection and anticipation; morality must teach him the exact bounds, and different shades, of vice and virtue; from policy and the practice of life, he has to learn the discriminations of character, and the tendency of the pas sions, either single or combined; and physiology must supply him with illustrations and images. To put these materials to poetical use, is required an imagination capable of painting nature, and realising. fiction; nor is he yet a

poet

poet till he has attained the whole extension of his language, distinguished all the delicacies of phrase, and all the colours of words, and learned to adjust the different sounds to all the varieties of metrical modulation.

Life of Milton.

It is certain that no estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations, than those by which a man computes the force of his genius. Rambler, vol, 3, p. 288.

It is not safe to judge of the works of genius merely by the event.

Ibid. p. 303.

The genius of the English nation is said to appear rather in improvement than invention. Idler, vol. 1, p. 218.

Those who are willing to attribute every thing to genius, or natural sagacity, independent of a previous education, are encouraged to this opinion by laziness or pride, being willing to forego the labour of accurate reading and tedious enquiry, and to satisfy themselves and others with illustrious examples.

Life of Dr. Sydenham.

There are many forcible expressions which would never have been found, but by venturing to the utmost verge of propriety, and flights which would never have been reached, but by those who have had very little fear of the shame of falling.

Life of Sir T. Brown, p. 283.

As among the works of nature no man can properly call a river deep, or a mountain high,

without

without the knowledge of many mountains and many rivers; so, in the productions of genius, nothing can be styled excellent till it has been compared with other works of the same kind.

Preface to Shakspeare, p. 126.

Many works of genius and learning have been performed in states of life, that appear very little favourable to thought or to enquiry; so many, that he who considers them, is inclined to think that he sees enterprise and perseverance predominating over all external agency, and bidding help and hindrance vanish before them.

Ibid, p. 125.

GOVERNMENT.

Governments formed by chance, and gradually improved by such expedients as the successive discovery of their defects happened to suggest, are never to be tried by a regular theory. They are fabrics of dissimilar materials, raised by different architects upon different plans. We must be content with them as they are; should we attempt to mend their disproportions, we might easily demolish, and with difficulty rebuild them.

Falle Alarm, p. 24.

In all political regulations, good cannot be complete; it can only be predominant. Western Islands, p. 208.

No scheme of policy has, in any country, yet brought the rich on equal terms into courts of judicature. Perhaps experience, improving on experience, may in time effect it.

Ibid. p. 215.

Το

To hinder insurrection by driving away the people, and to govern peaceably by having no subjects, is an expedient that argues no great profundity of politics. To soften the obdurate, to convince the mistaken, to mollify the resentful, are worthy of a statesman; but it affords a legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there was formerly an insurrection, there is now a wilderness.

Ibid. p. 224.

The general history of mankind will evince that lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed. Gross corruption or evident imbecility, is necessary to the suppression of that reverence with which the majority of mankind look upon their governors, or those whom they see surrounded by splendour, and fortified by power.

Rambler, vol. 1, p. 301.

No government could subsist for a day, if single errors could justify defection.

Taxation no Tyranny, p. 62.

Government is necessary to man; and when obedience is not compelled, there is no govern

ment.

Ibid. p. 77.

To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.

Rambler, vol. 3, p. 12.

Forms of government are seldom the result of much deliberation; they are framed by chance in

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