ter which the exalted interests of humanity demand. The undue preponderance of any faculty or combination of faculties, whatever may be its legitimate capacities for usefulness, or the peculiar and appropriate sphere of action for which it may be designed, deranges and disturbs this essential harmony, and becomes productive of disorder and evil. None of the passions or propensities implanted in the constitution of our being are destitute of a sphere of action and of motive, within which their manifestation is not only innocent, but salutary and even indispensable; and many of the sentiments which we are most accustomed to reverence and admire, may, and by no means unfrequently do, act from the impulse of mere passion-the exuberance of irrepressible sympathy-from habit-from constitutional tendency -and from the operation of motives often as exceptionable as those which prompt to their opposite vices.

CHAPTER III.

THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS.

1. It has been observed that men, in all ages have essentially differed in the possession of general and particular talents, whether connected with the cultivation of science and the arts, or pertaining to that species of mental power which confers moral superiority and strength of character. These differences have obviously not been the result of mere volition, nor have they been capable of essential diminution, much less of eradication, by the utmost exertions of human means. Hence, doubtless, has originated the infinite variety of character and attainment which has always existed, and which is so universally apparent. In the ordinary intercourse of society, we experience no difficulty in detecting among the mass of men congregated in the great thoroughfares of civilization, the most palpable shades of intellectual and moral difference; while perhaps but very few rise to any remarkable extent above the ordinary level of the society of which they form a part. Occasionally, however, we meet with those, whose intellectual powers, wholly or in part, seem to expand without effort to the highest degree of advancement, and to embrace at once and intuitively the utmost extent of science and knowledge comprised within the range of the peculiar faculties thus vigorously manifested. These extraordinary developements of the mental functions however, rarely include the entire circle of the intellectual or moral attributes of our nature; and accordingly we almost

invariably find the highest efforts of genius concentrated upon some favorite department of exertion in which its energies are exhausted, while in all the other walks of science, mediocrity alone is apparent. 2. The manifestations of this superiority of endowment have, not unfrequently, been ascribed in a great degree to the presence and operation of adventitious causes; and regarded as the consequence rather of education, habit and discipline, joined to a favorable combination of external circumstances, than of any radical inequality of natural gifts. Notwithstanding the universal prevalence of the most opposite and distinctive peculiarities of character and attainment, the conclusion has been deduced that no fundamental diversity of faculties existed; that the inclination, the will and the necessary exertion were alone requisite, in the absence of any external obstacle, to place each intelligent individual of the species upon a footing of equality with those who have manifested the utmost compass of mental power. It has not been without a long and severe struggle that this flattering doctrine of the essential equality of the mental faculties, has at length been generally abandoned as utterly untenable by reason, and unfounded in nature. The irresistible mass of evidence establishing apparently beyond the possibility of cavil, a doctrine more in consonance with the experience and good sense of mankind, has, it is true, been ingeniously sought to be parried by urging the known and powerful influence of climate, education, habit and circumstances, over the formation and developement of character. A thorough investigation, however, of the elementary principles of mental philosophy has abundantly demonstrated that much as these and similar influences may modify, they can neither create, nor materially control, the predominant faculties of our nature.

3. If the proposition be true that we can infer the existence, extent and variety of the mental faculties, only from their different manifestations, the conclusion is irresistible that intellectual and moral powers have been unequally bestowed upon the human family, and that Genius owes its triumphs to a source essentially independent as well of any external combination of circumstances, as of extraordinary mental application, habit or discipline. In the idiot no external indications of the presence and operation of intellectual or moral faculties are discernible, and we therefore invariably and justly infer their nonexistence in the constitution of his being, or at least, (and for the purposes of our argument, the effect is precisely the same,) the non-existence or complete derangement of the physical organs by means of which alone they can, in this world, be manifested. In the natives of New Holland, portions of Africa and Asia, and some of the islands of the Pacific, the manifestations of these faculties are feeble and inefficient, barely sufficing for the lowest condition of human existence; and we accordingly assign to these unfortunate and degraded beings, a corresponding deficiency in mental and moral organization. On the other hand, in the civilized nations of the globe, the arts and sciences are cultivated, the imagination expands, the moral affections are constantly called into active exercise, civil and religious institutions are established and maintained, and the vast machinery of society harmoniously revolves, dispensing its innumerable blessings, and carrying forward, with gigantic strides, the destinies of the race; and here we reach the highest developement, and infer the presence of the most exalted intellectual and moral capacities. But here too, we are called upon to distinguish the greatest variety of developement, among the individuals who compose these various

communities, from the wretched outcasts who linger on the confines of barbarism, the incurably vicious, or hopelessly imbecile, up to the Bacons, the Napoleons, and the Franklins, who occupy the highest niches in the temple of fame.

4. This variety will be found to exist, so far as we are able to discover, wholly irrespective and independent of external circumstances, of education, of rank or station, of the determination of the will, or in short, of any artificial or extraneous appliances, physical or moral. In numerous well authenticated instances, the peculiar direction and extraordinary energy of the mental faculties, do not even await the period ordinarily assigned to their earliest developement. Handel, Haydn, and Mozart conceived and executed the most difficult and complicated pieces of music before the age of twelve years, Raphael, at the same immature period, had exhibited the most decided and unequivocal proofs of the splendid talents as an artist for which he afterwards became so celebrated; and our own eminent painter West, equally early displayed a power of conception, and facility and happiness of execution, surpassing, in his own mature judgment, any of his subsequent attainments. Pascal, without even the aid of an instructor, had before the age of sixteen mastered the elements of Euclid, and written a treatise on conic sections; and the peculiar genius of Canova was developed at a still earlier period. Milton, Pope and Cowley, to use the language of Dr. Johnson, gave such early proofs not only of powers of language but of comprehension of things as to more tardy minds seems scarcely credible.' Metastasio, in early childhood, amused himself with extemporary poetical composition; and the extraordinary powers of mind of Danté prematurely wasted his physical energies, and subjected his too susceptible temperament to