he mind is _passive_, and is affected painfully or pleasurably as
by an instinct. But the profound and the exquisite in feeling, the lofty
and universal in thought and imagination; or, in ordinary language, the
pathetic and the sublime;--are neither of them, accurately speaking,
objects of a faculty which could ever without a sinking in the spirit of
Nations have been designated by the metaphor--_Taste_. And why? Because
without the exertion of a co-operating _power_ in the mind of the
Reader, there can be no adequate sympathy with either of these emotions:
without this auxiliary impulse, elevated or profound passion cannot
exist.

Passion, it must be observed, is derived from a word which signifies
_suffering_; but the connection which suffering has with effort, with
exertion, and _action_, is immediate and inseparable. How strikingly is
this property of human nature exhibited by the fact, that, in popular
language, to be in a passion, is to be angry!--But,

Anger in hasty _words_ or _blows_
Itself discharges on its foes.

To be moved, then, by a passion, is to be excited, often to external,
and always to internal, effort: whether for the continuance and
strengthening of the passion, or for its suppression, accordingly as the
course which it takes may be painful or pleasurable. If the latter, the
soul must contribute to its support, or it never becomes vivid,--and
soon languishes, and dies. And this brings us to the point. If every
great poet with whose writings men are familiar, in the highest exercise
of his genius, before he can be thoroughly enjoyed, has to call forth
and to communicate _power_, this service, in a still greater degree,
falls upon an original writer, at his first appearance in the world.--Of
genius the only proof is, the act of doing well what is worthy to be
done, and what was never done before: Of genius, in the fine arts, the
only infallible sign is the widening the sphere of human sensibility,
for the delight, honour, and benefit of human nature. Genius is the
introduction of a new element into the intellectual universe: or, if
that be not allowed, it is the application of powers to objects on which
they had not before been exercised, or the employment of them in such a
manner as to produce effects hitherto unknown. What is all this but an
advance, or a conquest, made by the soul of the poet? Is it to be
supposed that the reader can make progress of this kind, like an Indian
prince or