most elegant and nervous writings have been composed in the evening of life. Indeed, Necker says that seventy is a good age for intellectual pursuits, and particularly for authorship; because the mind retains its energy, while envy and other feelings are absent. Julius Scaliger retained his faculties so well, that, after he was seventy, he dictated to his son two hundred verses of a poem which he had composed the day before and retained in his memory. M. Arnauld translated Josephus excellently at eighty years of age. When Sir Isaac Newton was eighty-three, Mr. Conduit observes, "the head of this extraordinary man was quite clear, and his memory very retentive." Sir Christopher Wren retired from public life at eighty-six ; and after that, he spent five years in literary, astronomical, and religious engagements. Michael Angelo retained his powers of mind after he was ninety; and Fontenelle when he was nearly a hundred! Hobbes, Walton, and Milton, were intellectual in their old age.

The cultivated intellect of man is not like the rainbow, which spans the whole heavens, and immediately vanishes; for it "grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength," and when the tide of life ebbs towards the ocean of eternity, it glides on statelily, adorned with honours and dignity.

CHAP. II.

ON GENIUS.

THE term genius is generally used to signify a superiority in mental qualities. There are various ways in which this difference may exist. It may arise from a pre-eminence of the mind itself; or from a more perfect conformation of the body, with a nicer adjustment of the organs of sense; or from an exact agreement or adaptation of the immaterial to the material part. But Cicero maintains that no man was ever great without Divine inspiration," Nemo igitur vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit." And Akenside

says,

"From Heav'n descends The flame of genius to the human breast, And love, and beauty, and poetic joy,

And inspiration."

But M. de Buffon asserts that " genius is the repeated effort of thinking; it comes not by inspiration, but it is the working of a powerful mind applied to a particular subject." Dr. Johnson was nearly of the same opinion. He believed genius to be the accidental direction of a great mind. The Abbé du Bos asserts that " genius consists in a happy arrangement of the organs of the brain." And this somewhat resembles the opinion of Arche

laus,— that all animals possess a soul, but the variation of capacity depends on the peculiar conformation of the bodily organs. Agreeably to this theory, the structure of the material part is the principal cause of genius; but it is more natural to suppose that genius depends chiefly on the mind. And if, as Leibnitz has shown, in his controversy with Dr. S. Clarke, that there can be no two existences alike, then the mental powers of human beings must be dissimilar in capacity. A superior mind, a well-ordered body, and a happy connection of the mental with the corporeal part, will constitute a genius of the first order. The opposite qualities will occasion dulness and incapability. There is, evidently, a narrowness of capacity among some persons in comparison with others. Dr. Beattie has observed, that "human creatures, although they are born equal in many respects, are, in regard to abilities and character, very unequal." And Dr. Israeli asserts that "the equality of minds in their native state is as monstrous a paradox, or a term as equivocal in metaphysics, as the equality of men in a political state." Democritus, walking out one day, observed a lad employed in making faggots: and as he appeared to be very skilful, the philosopher concluded that he was a lad of genius; and that, if he was expert in this, he might become skilful in geometry and the whole circle of the sciences. He took him, therefore, from his labour, and gave him a good education. This lad was afterwards known as the famous Protagoras of Abdera. A defect in the finer fluids, and more particularly in those of the

nervous system, with a bluntness or imperfection of sense, may sometimes occasion stupidity, and a disinclination to push onward in the path of knowledge. For it must be remembered, that an inclination for mental action is one of the most convincing proofs of genius. Pursuits of a literary and scientific kind are, to the man of talent, a source of pleasure. He pants for knowledge as the hart for the grateful stream. It would be as natural for an epicure to loathe a feast, as for an intellectual man to hate study.

Dr. John

But it is doubtful whether the tendency to a particular science be accidental or not. son (as I said before) thought it was so. It is not unlikely that there may be an adaptation of the body for one particular engagement rather than another. For example, the artist may possess a correct conformation of the organs of vision; and thus he may be capable of discerning with accuracy the laws of extension, agreement, and beauty. He may possess a delicate sensation, and derive a lively pleasure from visible objects, by which another may be unaffected. The same may be said of the ear in music, in poetry, and prose for the capability of discovering the beauties of composition in our best prose and poetic writers consists in trying the agreement of words, by a sort of secondary sense, in the same manner as the ear estimates the harmony of sounds. So far, genius may be regulated in a determinate manner, and independently of choice. The memory, and the other mental faculties, may be influenced, in some measure, by the conformation of the brain; for

if, at any time, this important portion of the body be injured, the mind becomes affected. But with respect to the exact direction of the mental powers

whether a man will judge of the character and proportions of architecture, or the form and peculiarities of the human body—it must be supposed to depend principally on accident. A child, by reading or hearing an anecdote, or some interesting statement, may begin an undertaking, or discontinue one which he had commenced. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, that his inclination for painting was produced by reading Richardson's treatise on that interesting art. Sir William Jones attributed his disposition for learning to an accidental occurrence. At school he unfortunately broke his thigh; and while confined to his room, he acquired a taste for books, by reading those which were brought for his amusement. Cowley became a poet by reading Spenser. The husband and father of the woman that nursed Michael Angelo were stonemasons, and the chisel was often put into the hands of the child as a plaything. Linnæus, Claude Lorraine, Chatterton, and several others, were induced to enter on their various pursuits by accidental circumstances. And many a man, after commencing his career with successful prospects, has been checked and laid aside -unhonoured and unknown. Some other engagement has diverted his attention, while the land of intellectual vision has been fading from his view; but a fortunate occurrence has again brought him on the plains of knowledge. Some unexpected success,