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CONTENTS.
LITERARY CHARACTER.
CHAPTER I.
Of literary characters, and of the lovers of literature and art
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
CHAPTER III.
PAGE
. 11
14
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 æras, 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
CHAPTER V.
Youth of genius.-Its first impulses may be illustrated by its subse-
quent 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
PAGB
31
CHAPTER VI.
The first studies.-The self-educated are marked by stubborn peculi-
arities. Their errors.-Their improvement from the neglect or con-
tempt they incur.-The history of self-education in Moses Men.
delssohn.-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 let-
ters. 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 no-
tions 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 dis-
agreement 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 associa
tions with their pursuits.
99
CHAPTER X.
Literary solitude.-Its necessity.-Its pleasures.-Of visitors by pro
fession.-Its inconveniences
109
CHAPTER XI.
The meditations of Genius.-A work on the Art of Meditation not yet
produced.-Predisposing the mind.-Imagination awakens imagina-
tion.—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.-Con-
tinuity of attention the source of philosophical discoveries.-Still-
ness of meditation the first state of existence in genius
CHAPTER XII.
116
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.-In-
stances of its incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.—
Of a peculiar species, where the fever consumes the sufferer with-
out its malignancy
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
154
159
CHAPTER XV.
Self-praise of genius.-The love of praise instinctive in the nature
of genius. A high opinion of themselves necessary 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 ad-
miration 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 pro-
vide against the worst state of poverty among literary men.
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
186
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 writ-
ings.-Erroneous conceptions of the character of distant authors.—
Paradoxical appearances in the history of genius.-Why the cha-
racter of the man may be opposite to that of his writings
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 cha-
racter of a modern man of letters exhibited in Peiresc.-Their
utility to authors and artists
217
226
CHAPTER XXII.
Literary old age still learning.-Influence of late studies in life.--Oc-
cupations in advanced age of the literary character. Of literary
men who have died at their studies
CHAPTER XXIII.
-
238
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
CHAPTER XXIV.
Literature an avenue to glory.-An intellectual nobility not chime-
rical, 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 useful-