Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions — A Closer Reading

Of literary characters, and of the lovers of literature and art. 11

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. 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 areas, and by a common end pursued by both. 20

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. 24

Youth of genius.--Its first impulses may be illustrated by its subsequent 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. 31

The first studies.--The self-educated are marked by stubborn peculiarities.--Their errors.--Their improvement from the neglect or contempt they incur.--The history of self-education in Moses Mendelssohn.--Friends usually prejudicial in the youth of genius. --A remarkable interview between Petrarch in his first studies, and his literary adviser.--Exhortation. 55

Of the irritability of genius.--Genius in society often in a state of suffering.--Equality of temper more prevalent among men of letters.--Of the occupation of making a great name.--Anxieties of the most successful.--Of the inventors.--Writers of learning.-- Writers of taste. --Artists. 69

The spirit of literature and the spirit of society.--The inventors. --Society offers seduction and not reward to men of genius.--The notions 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 disagreement between the men of the world and the literary character. 89

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 associations with their pursuits. 99

Literary solitude.--Its necessity.--Its pleasures.--Of visitors by profession.--Its inconveniences. 109

The meditations of Genius.--A work on the Art of Meditation not yet produced.--Predisposing the mind.--Imagination awakens imagination. --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.--Continuity of attention the source of philosophical discoveries. --Stillness of meditation the first state of existence in genius. 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

Of the jealousy of genius.--Jealousy often proportioned to the degree of genius.--A perpetual fever among authors and artists. --Instances of its incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.--Of a peculiar species, where the fever consumes the sufferer without its malignancy. 154

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. 159

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 admiration and their malignity. 162

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

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 provide against the worst state of poverty among literary men. 186

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. 198

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

The literary and the personal character.--The personal dispositions of an author may be the reverse of those which appear in his writings.--Erroneous conceptions of the character of distant authors.--Paradoxical appearances in the history of genius.--Why the character of the man may be opposite to that of his writings. 217

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 character of a modern man of letters exhibited in Peiresc.-- Their utility to authors and artists. 226

Literary old age still learning.--Influence of late studies in life.--Occupations in advanced age of the literary character. --Of literary men who have died at their studies. 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. 244

Literature an avenue to glory.--An intellectual nobility not chimerical, but created by public opinion.--Literary honours of various nations.--Local associations with the memory of the man of genius. 248

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 usefulness in privacy--The public mind is now the creation of the public writer.--Politicians affect to deny this principle.--Authors stand between the governors and the governed.--A view of the solitary author in his study.--They create an epoch in history.--Influence of popular authors.--The immortality of thought.--The family of genius illustrated by their genealogy. 258

LITERARY MISCELLANIES.

Goldsmith and Johnson 294

On habituating ourselves to an individual pursuit 302

On novelty in literature 305

The genius of Molière 310

The sensibility of Racine 325

Hume, Robertson, and Birch 340

Of voluminous works incomplete by the deaths of the authors 350

Of domestic novelties at first condemned 355

Domesticity; or a dissertation on servants 364

Printed letters in the vernacular idiom 375

CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST.

Of the first modern assailants of the character of James I., Burnet, Bolingbroke and Pope, Harris, Macaulay, and Walpole 386

His polemical studies 389

--how these were political 392

The Hampton Court conference 393

Of some of his writings 398

Popular superstitions of the age 400

The King's habits of life those of a man of letters 402

Of the facility and copiousness of his composition 404

Specimens of his humour, and observations on human life 407

Some evidences of his sagacity in the discovery of truth 410

Of his "Basilicon Doron" 413

Of his idea of a tyrant and a king 414

Advice to Prince Henry in the choice of his servants and associates 415

Describes the Revolutionists of his time 416

Of the nobility of Scotland 417

Regulations for the prince's manners and habits _ib._

Of his idea of the royal prerogative 421

The lawyers' idea of the same _ib._

Of his elevated conception of the kingly character 425

His design in issuing "The Book of Sports" for the Sabbath-day 426

The Sabbatarian controversy 428

The motives of his aversion to war 430

James acknowledges his dependence on the Commons; their conduct 431

Of certain scandalous chronicles 434

A picture of the age from a manuscript of the times 437

Anecdotes of the manners of the age 441

James I. discovers the disorders and discontents of a peace of more than twenty years 449

The King's private life in his occasional retirements 450

A detection of the discrepancies of opinion among the decriers of James I 451

Summary of his character 455

ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D.,

In dedicating this Work to one of the most eminent literary characters of the age, I am experiencing a peculiar gratification, in which few, perhaps none, of my contemporaries can participate; for I am addressing him, whose earliest effusions attracted my regard, near half a century past; and during that awful interval of time--for fifty years is a trial of life of whatever may be good in us--you have multiplied your talents, and have never lost a virtue.

When I turn from the uninterrupted studies of your domestic solitude to our metropolitan authors, the contrast, if not encouraging, is at least extraordinary. You are not unaware that the revolutions of Society have operated on our literature, and that new classes of readers have called forth new classes of writers. The causes and the consequences of the present state of this fugitive literature might form an inquiry which would include some of the important topics which concern the PUBLIC MIND, --but an inquiry which might be invidious shall not disturb a page consecrated to the record of excellence. They who draw their inspiration from the hour must not, however, complain if with that hour they pass away.

For the fifth time I revise a subject which has occupied my inquiries from early life, with feelings still delightful, and an enthusiasm not wholly diminished.

Had not the principle upon which this work is constructed occurred to me in my youth, the materials which illustrate the literary character could never have been brought together. It was in early life that I conceived the idea of pursuing the history of genius by the similar events which had occurred to men of genius. Searching into literary history for the literary character formed a course of experimental philosophy in which every new essay verified a former trial, and confirmed a former truth. By the great philosophical principle of induction, inferences were deduced and results established, which, however vague and doubtful in speculation, are irresistible when the appeal is made to facts as they relate to others, and to feelings which must be decided on as they are passing in our own breast.

It is not to be inferred from what I have here stated that I conceive that any single man of genius will resemble every man of genius; for not only man differs from man, but varies from himself in the different stages of human life. All that I assert is, that every man of genius will discover, sooner or later, that he belongs to the brotherhood of his class, and that he cannot escape from certain habits, and feelings, and disorders, which arise from the same temperament and sympathies, and are the necessary consequence of occupying the same position, and passing through the same moral existence. Whenever we compare men of genius with each other, the history of those who are no more will serve as a perpetual commentary on our contemporaries. There are, indeed, secret feelings which their prudence conceals, or their fears obscure, or their modesty shrinks from, or their pride rejects; but I have sometimes imagined that I have held the clue as they have lost themselves in their own labyrinth. I know that many, and some of great celebrity, have sympathised with the feelings which inspired these volumes; nor, while I have elucidated the idiosyncrasy of genius, have I less studied the habits and characteristics of the lovers of literature.

It has been considered that the subject of this work might have been treated with more depth of metaphysical disquisition; and there has since appeared an attempt to combine with this investigation the medical science. A work, however, should be judged by its design and its execution, and not by any preconceived notion of what it ought to be according to the critic, rather than the author. The nature of this work is dramatic rather than metaphysical. It offers a narration or a description; a conversation or a monologue; an incident or a scene.

Perhaps I have sometimes too warmly apologised for the infirmities of men of genius. From others we may hourly learn to treat with levity the man of genius because he is _only_ such. Perhaps also I may have been too fond of the subject, which has been for me an old and a favourite one--I may have exalted the literary character beyond the scale by which society is willing to fix it. Yet what is this Society, so omnipotent, so all judicial? The society of to-day was not the society of yesterday. Its feelings, its thoughts, its manners, its rights, its wishes, and its wants, are different and are changed: alike changed or alike created by those very literary characters whom it rarely comprehends and often would despise. Let us no longer look upon this retired and peculiar class as useless members of our busy race. There are mental as well as material labourers. The first are not less necessary; and as they are much rarer, so are they more precious. These are they whose "published labours" have benefited mankind--these are they whose thoughts can alone rear that beautiful fabric of social life, which it is the object of all good men to elevate or to support. To discover truth and to maintain it,--to develope the powers, to regulate the passions, to ascertain the privileges of man, --such have ever been, and such ever ought to be, the labours of AUTHORS! Whatever we enjoy of political and private happiness, our most necessary knowledge as well as our most refined pleasures, are alike owing to this class of men; and of these, some for glory, and often from benevolence, have shut themselves out from the very beings whom they love, and for whom they labour.

Upwards of forty years have elapsed since, composed in a distant county, and printed at a provincial press, I published "An Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character." To my own habitual and inherent defects were superadded those of my youth. The crude production was, however, not ill received, for the edition disappeared, and the subject was found more interesting than the writer.

During a long interval of twenty years, this little work was often recalled to my recollection by several, and by some who have since obtained celebrity. They imagined that their attachment to literary pursuits had been strengthened even by so weak an effort. An extraordinary circumstance concurred with these opinions. A copy accidentally fell into my hands which had formerly belonged to the great poetical genius of our times; and the singular fact, that it had been more than once read by him, and twice in two subsequent years at Athens, in 1810 and 1811, instantly convinced me that the volume deserved my renewed attention.

It was with these feelings that I was again strongly attracted to a subject from which, indeed, during the course of a studious life, it had never been long diverted. The consequence of my labours was the publication, in 1818, of an octavo volume, under the title of "The Literary Character, illustrated by the History of Men of Genius, drawn from their own feelings and confessions."

In the preface to this edition, in mentioning the fact respecting Lord Byron, which had been the immediate cause of its publication, I added these words: "I tell this fact assuredly not from any little vanity which it may appear to betray;--for the truth is, were I not as liberal and as candid in respect to my own productions, as I hope I am to others, I could not have been gratified by the present circumstance; for the marginal notes of the noble author convey no flattery;--but amidst their pungency, and sometimes their truth, the circumstance that a man of genius could reperuse this slight effusion at two different periods of his life, was a sufficient authority, at least for an author, to return it once more to the anvil."

Some time after the publication of this edition of "The Literary Character," which was in fact a new work, I was shown, through the kindness of an English gentleman lately returned from Italy, a copy of it, which had been given to him by Lord Byron, and which again contained marginal notes by the noble author. These were peculiarly interesting, and were chiefly occasioned by observations on his character, which appeared in the work.

In 1822 I published a new edition of this work, greatly enlarged, and in two volumes. I took this opportunity of inserting the manuscript Notes of Lord Byron, with the exception of one, which, however characteristic of the amiable feelings of the noble poet, and however gratifying to my own, I had no wish to obtrude on the notice of the public.[A]

[Footnote A: As everything connected with the reading of a mind like Lord BYRON'S interesting to the philosophical inquirer, this note may now be preserved. On that passage of the Preface of the second Edition which I have already quoted, his Lordship was thus pleased to write:

"I was wrong, but I was young and petulant, and probably wrote down anything, little thinking that those observations would be betrayed to the author, whose abilities I have always respected, and whose works in general I have read oftener than perhaps those of any English author whatever, except such as treat of Turkey."]

Soon after the publication of this third edition, I received the following letter from his lordship:--

_"Montenero, Villa Dupuy, near Leghorn, June 10, 1822._

"DEAR SIR,--If you will permit me to call you so,--I had some time ago taken up my pen at Pisa, to thank you for the present of your new edition of the 'Literary Character,' which has often been to me a consolation, and always a pleasure. I was interrupted, however, partly by business, and partly by vexation of different kinds,--for I have not very long ago lost a child by fever, and I have had a good deal of petty trouble with the laws of this lawless country, on account of the prosecution of a servant for an attack upon a cowardly scoundrel of a dragoon, who drew his sword upon some unarmed Englishmen, and whom I had done the honour to mistake for an officer, and to treat like a gentleman. He turned out to be neither,--like many other with medals, and in uniform; but he paid for his brutality with a severe and dangerous wound, inflicted by nobody knows whom, for, of three suspected, and two arrested, they have been able to identify neither; which is strange, since he was wounded in the presence of thousands, in a public street, during a feast-day and full promenade. --But to return to things more analogous to the 'Literary Character,' I wish to say, that had I known that the book was to fall into your hands, or that the MS. notes you have thought worthy of publication would have attracted your attention, I would have made them more copious, and perhaps not so careless.