lgence of one talent to exercise another with equal
power; and some, who have solely composed sermons, could have touched on
the foibles of society with the spirit of Horace or Juvenal. BLACKSTONE
and Sir WILLIAM JONES directed that genius to the austere studies of law
and philology, which might have excelled in the poetical and historical
character. So versatile is this faculty of genius, that its possessors
are sometimes uncertain of the manner in which they shall treat their
subject, whether gravely or ludicrously. When BREBOEUF, the French
translator of the Pharsalia of Lucan, had completed the first book as it
now appears, he at the same time composed a burlesque version, and sent
both to the great arbiter of taste in that day, to decide which the poet
should continue. The decision proved to be difficult. Are there not
writers who, with all the vehemence of genius, by adopting one principle
can make all things shrink into the pigmy form of ridicule, or by
adopting another principle startle us by the gigantic monsters of their
own exaggerated imagination? On this principle, of the versatility of the
faculty, a production of genius is a piece of art which, wrought up to
its full effect with a felicity of manner acquired by taste and habit, is
merely the result of certain arbitrary combinations of the mind.

Are we then to reduce the works of a man of genius to a mere sport of his
talents--a game in which he is only the best player? Can he whose secret
power raises so many emotions in our breasts be without any in his own? A
mere actor performing a part? Is he unfeeling when he is pathetic,
indifferent when he is indignant? Is he an alien to all the wisdom and
virtue he inspires? No! were men of genius themselves to assert this, and
it is said some incline so to do, there is a more certain conviction than
their misconceptions, in our own consciousness, which for ever assures us,
that deep feelings and elevated thoughts can alone spring from those who
feel deeply and think nobly.

In proving that the character of the man may be very opposite to that of
his writings, we must recollect that the habits of the life may be
contrary to the habits of the mind.[A] The influence of their studies over
men of genius is limited. Out of the ideal world, man is reduced to be the
active creature of sensation. An author has, in truth, two distinct
characters: the literary, formed by the habits of his study; the personal,
by the habits