The Infirmities of Genius Illustrated by Referring the Anomalies in the Literary Character to the Habits and Constitutional Peculiarities of Men of Genius, Volume 1 |
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Page 2
... less in their element ; the effort to support the dignity of genius in a common - place conversation , costs them , per- haps , more fatigue than the composition of half a volume would occasion in their study . Or if any congenial topic ...
... less in their element ; the effort to support the dignity of genius in a common - place conversation , costs them , per- haps , more fatigue than the composition of half a volume would occasion in their study . Or if any congenial topic ...
Page 5
... less divested of the attributes of his great- ness when he is taken from his study , or followed in crowded circles . We naturally desire to know every thing that concerns the character or the general conduct of those whose productions ...
... less divested of the attributes of his great- ness when he is taken from his study , or followed in crowded circles . We naturally desire to know every thing that concerns the character or the general conduct of those whose productions ...
Page 10
... less . " A vigorous mind , " says Burke , " is as necessarily accompanied by violent passions , as a great fire with great heat . " And to such a mind , whatever be its frailties , the just and the charitable will be inclined to deem it ...
... less . " A vigorous mind , " says Burke , " is as necessarily accompanied by violent passions , as a great fire with great heat . " And to such a mind , whatever be its frailties , the just and the charitable will be inclined to deem it ...
Page 14
... less injurious to others . It would be idle to expatiate on the good which literary pursuits are calcu- lated to effect in every circle . The country gentleman need not be reminded that literature , of all sports , even when pursued as ...
... less injurious to others . It would be idle to expatiate on the good which literary pursuits are calcu- lated to effect in every circle . The country gentleman need not be reminded that literature , of all sports , even when pursued as ...
Page 47
... less laborious study , or calls for less profound reflection than poetry ? Or is it that the latter is rather a passion than a pursuit , which is not confined to the exertion of a particular faculty , but which demands the exercise of ...
... less laborious study , or calls for less profound reflection than poetry ? Or is it that the latter is rather a passion than a pursuit , which is not confined to the exertion of a particular faculty , but which demands the exercise of ...
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Common terms and phrases
apoplexy appears application attack attention authors bard biographer bodily body Boswell brain Burns Byron cause CHAPTER character choly constitution CONTINUED Cowper death dejection depression disease disorder dramatists dying dyspepsia effects electricity enthusiasm epilepsy errors evil excessive excitement exercise exertion feelings friends genius gloom Goethe habits heart Hippocrates human hypochondria imagination infirmities influence insanity irritability James Johnson Johnson labour Lady laudanum letters literary living longevity Lope de Vega Lord Lord Byron madness malady melan melancholy ment Metastasio mind misery monomania moral natural philosophers nature nerves nervous energy ness never observation occasion opinion pain passion perhaps period Petrarch philosophers physician poet poetry Pope port wine produced pursuits reason religion religious Salvator Rosa says Scott SIR WALTER SCOTT speaking spirits stomach studious sufferings symptoms temper thing thought tion told truth vigour weary Wilson Philip wonder words writing
Popular passages
Page 13 - How small , of all that human hearts endure , That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Page 142 - An educated man stands, as it were, in the midst of a boundless arsenal and magazine, filled with all the weapons and engines which man's skill has been able to devise from the earliest time ; and he works, accordingly, with a strength borrowed from all past ages. How different is his state who...
Page 224 - Yet must I think less wildly : — I have thought Too long and darkly, till my brain became, In its own eddy boiling and o'erwrought, A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame : And thus, untaught in youth my heart to tame, My springs of life were poison'd.
Page 51 - The eclipse of Nature spreads my pall, — The majesty of darkness shall Receive my parting ghost ! This spirit shall return to Him That gave its heavenly spark; Yet think not, Sun, it shall be dim When thou thyself art dark! No ! it shall live again, and shine In bliss unknown to beams of thine, By him recall'd to breath, Who captive led captivity, Who robb'd the grave of Victory, — And took the sting from Death...
Page 124 - Every thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent ; there never was any moderation. Many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine : but when he did eat, it was voraciously ; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not temperance.
Page 62 - In time some particular train of ideas fixes the attention, all other intellectual gratifications are rejected, the mind, in weariness or leisure, recurs constantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended with the bitterness of truth.
Page 228 - In England, five years ago, I had the same kind of hypochondria, but accompanied with so violent a thirst, that I have drank as many as fifteen bottles of soda-water in one night, after going to bed...
Page 116 - I ventured to tell him, that I had been, for moments in my life, not afraid of death; therefore I could suppose another man in that state of mind for a considerable space of time. He said, 'he never had a moment in which death was not terrible to him.
Page 72 - Of the great number to whom it has been my painful professional duty to have administered in the last hours of their lives, I have sometimes felt surprised that so few have appeared reluctant to go to " the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns.
Page 119 - ... reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care, to go out or in at a door' or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot, (I am not certain which,) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture : for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with...