To this it must be added that, though he is able to explain himself perspicuously, yet he is not mas- ter of the graces of speech, nor eveii perhaps of the niceties of grammar. His voice is not tuned to those winning inflections by which men, accus- 40 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. [ESSAY tomed to the higher ranks of society, are enabled so to express themselves, lliat aged ears play truant at their tales. And younger hearings are quite ravished. So sweet and voluble is their discourse.
On the contrary there is a ruggedness in his manner that jars upon the sense. It is easy for the light and supercilious to turn him into ridicule. And those who will not be satisfied with the soundness of his matter, expounded, as he is able to expound it, in clear and appropriate terms, will yield him small credit, and listen to him with little delight.
These considerations therefore bring us back again to the reasons of the prevalent opinion, that the majority of mankind are dull, and of apprehen- sion narrow and confused. The mass of boys in the process of their education appear so, because little of what is addressed to them by their instruc- tors, awakens their curiosity, and inspires them with the desire to excel. The concealed spark of ambition is not yet cleared from the crust that en- veloped it as it first came from the hand of nature. And in like manner the elder persons, who have not experienced the advantages of a liberal educa- tion, or by whom small profit was made by those advantages, being defective in exterior graces, are generally listened to with impatience, and therefore want the confidence and the inclination to tell what they know.
11.] OF TH£ DISTRIBUTION OF TALBNTS. 41 But these latter^ if they are not attended to upon the subjects to which their attention and ingenuity have been applied, do not the less possess a know- ledge and skill which are intrinsically worthy of applause. They therefore contentedly shut up the sum of their acquisitions in their own bosoms, and are satisfied with the consciousness that they have not been deficient in performing an adequate part in the generation of men among whom they live. ^ Those persons who favour the opinion of the incessant improveableness of the human specieiit, have felt strongly prompted to embrace the creed of Helvetius, who affirms that the minds of men, as they are born into* the world, are in a state of equality, alike prepared for any kind of discipline and instruction that may be afforded them, and that it depends upon education only, in the largest sense of that word, including every impression that may be made upon the mind, intentional or accidental, from the hour of our birth, whether we shall l>e poets or philosophers, dancers or singers, chemists or mathematicians, astronomers or dissectors of tlie faculties of our common nature.
But this is not true. It has already appeared in the course of this Essay, that the talent, or, more accurately speaking, the original suitableness of the individual for the cultivation, of music or painting, depends upon certain peculiarities tliat we bring into the world with us. The same thing may be affirmed of the poet. As, in the infinite variety of / ^ 40 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS.
tomed to the higher ranks of society, arc so to express themselves, That aged ears play truant at their tales. And younger hearings are quite ravished. So sweet and voluble is their discourse.
On the contrary there is a ruggedness in ] that jars upon the sense. It is easy foi and supercilious to turn him into ridi' those who will not be satisfied with the of his matter, expounded, as he is able it, in clear and appropriate terms, wi- small credit, and listen to him with litt^ These considerations therefore br again to the reasons of the prevalent the majority of mankind are dull, anc^ sion narrow and confused. The ni the process of their education app< little of what is addressed to them b tors, awakens their curiosity, and with the desire to excel. The coi ambition is not yet cleared from tl velopcd it as it first came froin th( And in like manner the elder p not experienced the advantages ( tion, or by whom small profit w advantages, being defective in e^ generally listened to with impati want the confidence and the inc they know.
■IS Mie • es, phiinto made; : s easily ft creed, if rrong sifl^ 0, if tnMii ade of ttaijf it is wifUrt at that aoM nee, biilt«V6tt AhatewJhitUy lUOSt •I' both pnoeptol^ II.] OF THE DlSTSIBUnOX OF TjOXKIS. 4S of balanoeas to wlyutipecies of esocQeaoe ^ce skaB €:hoo6e; and, in die immoise field of j^ceasiMe oik proTement it ofien to us, witiiovl; laad-jBuk or compass for the direction of our oooise, k is scarcelj possible tliat we skonld fed that assared confidence and antiripation of soooessy whidt are perhaps indispensiUy required to the con^letioii of a truly arduous undertaking. ^ But, upon the principles laid down in this Essay, \ the case is widely different. We are here presented in every individual human creature with a subject better fitted for one sort of cultivation than anodic*. We are excited to an earnest study of the individual, that we may the more unerringly discover what pur-; suit it is for which his nature and qualifications especially prepare him. We may be long in choos- ing. We may be even on the brink of committing a considerable mistake. Our subsequent observa- tions may enable us to correct the inference we were disposed to make from those which went be- fore. Our sagacity is flattered by the result of the laborious scrutiny which this view of our common nature imposes upon us.
In addition to this we reap two important ad* vantages.
In tbe first place, we feel assured that every child that is bom. has his suitable sphere, to which if he is devoted, he will not fail to make an honourable figure, or, in other words^ will be seen to be en- dowed with faculties, apt, adroit, intelligent and 44 OF THE DlSTRIBUtlON OF TALENTS. [ESSAY acute. This consideration may reasonably stimulate us to call up all our penetration for the purpose of ascertaining the proper destination of the child for whom we are interested.
And, secondly, having arrived at this point, we shall find ourselves placed in a very different pre- dicament from the guardian or instructor, who, having selected at random the pursuit which his fancy dictates, and in the choice of which he is en- couraged by the presumptuous assertions of a wild metaphysical philosophy, must often, in spite of Jiimself, feel a secret misgiving as to the final event. He may succeed, and present to a wondering world a consummate musician, painter, poet, or philoso- pher; for even blind chance may sometimes hit the mark, as truly as the most perfect skill. But he will probably fail. Sudei mulium^ frustraque labor et. And, if he is disappointed, he will not only feel that disappointment in the ultimate result, but also in every step of his progress. When he has done his best, exerted his utmost industry, and consecrated every power of his soul to the energies he puts forth, he may close every day, sometimes with a faint shadow of success, and sometimes with entire and blank miscarriage. And the latter will happen ten thousand times, for once that the undertaking shall be blessed with a prosperous event.
But, when the destination that is given to a child has been founded upon a careful investigation of the faculties, tokens, and accidental aspirations 11.] OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. 45 which characterise his early years^ it is then that every step that is made with him, becomes a new. and surer source of satisfaction. The moment the pursuit for. which his powers are adapted is seriously proposed to him, his eyes sparkle^ and a second ex- / istence, in addition to that which he received at his I birth, descends upon him. He feels that he has \ now obtained something worth living for. He feels that he is at home, and in a sphere that is appro- priately his own. Every effort that he makes id successful. At every resting-place in his race of improvement be pauses, and looks back on what he has done with complacency. The master cannot teach him so fast, as he is prompted to acquire. n,^. / What a contrast does this species of instruction \ exhibit, to the ordinary course of scholastic educa- f tion! There, every lesson that is prescribed^ is a source of indirect warfare between the instructor and the pupil, the one professing to aim at the ad- / vancement of him that is taught, in the career of knowledge, and the other contemplating the effect that is intended to be produced upon htm with aversion, and longing to be engaged in any ihin^ else, rather than in that which b pressed upon \m foremost attention. In this sense a numerous mtiuM^i is, to a degree that can scarcely be adeijtiatiJy ik^ scribed, the slaughter-honi^ of mtiuL It i* IiIm? lt#i; undertaking, related by Livy^ of Acaai^ \aifriii#^ Mm; angor, to cot a whetstone with a raux/r — wiUi ll### difference, that our modem scboolf»ai#U!?r# M#4e $^^ / 46 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. [ESSAY /^endowed with the gift of working miracles^ and.
/ when the experiment falls into their hands, the re- sult of their efforts is a pitiful miscarriage. Know- ledge is scarcely in any degree imparted. But, as they are inured to a dogged assiduity, and persist in their unavailing attempts, though the shell of science, so to speak, is scarcely in the smallest measure penetrated, yet that inestimable gift of the author of our being, the sharpness of human facul- ties, is so blunted and destroyed, that it can scarcely ever be usefully employed even for those purposes which it was originally best qualified to effect.
A numerous school is that mint from which the worst and most flagrant libels on our nature are incessantly issued. Hence it is that we are taught, by. a judgment everlastingly repeated, that the ma- jority of our kind are predestinated blockheads.
Not that it is by any means to be recommended, that a little writing and arithmetic, and even the first rudiments of classical knowledge, so far as they can be practicably imparted, should be with- held from any. The mischief is, that we persist, month after montH^ and year after year, in sowing our seed, when it has already been fully ascertained, that no suitable and wholsome crop will ever be^ produced.
But what is perhaps worse is, that we are accus- tomed to pronounce, that that soil, which will not produce the crop of which we have attempted W make it fettile, is fit for nothing. The majority of \ II J OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS, 47 boys^ at the very period when the buds of intellect begin to unfold themselves, are so accustomed to \ be told that they are dull and fit for nothing, that the most pernicious effects are necessarily produced. They become half convinced by the ill-boding song of the raven, perpetually croaking in their ears; and, for the other half, though by no means as- sured that the sentence of impotence awarded against them is just, yet, folding up their powers in inactivity, they are contented partly to waste their energies in pure idleness and sport, and partly to wait, with minds scarcely half awake, for the moment when their true destination shall be open- ed before them.
Not that it is by any means to be desired, that the child in his earlier years should meet with po ruggednesses in his way, and that he should per- petually tread ^^ the primrose path of dalliance.^ Clouds and tempests occasionally clear the atmo- sphere of intellect, not less than that of the r]»ible world. The road to the hill of science, and to the promontory of heroic virtue, it harsh asd il«ep^ Md from time to time puts to the proof liie efitfgkf of him who would ascend dieir toptUMC romJL There are many things wludi eferj hmmm t;fm^ tare should leam^ 90 faar m, MfffKtMy i0p itm M^ stitution of ctviliied Mckiy^ ^mj turn %m ^^m0^ within his readi. He slioaU ht^ m4mM ^ UmH them, wining if posnUe, Iwt^ ¥1 Ikfit. ^ mmu4 t^' dioroi^j etSteUd^ jU wkk kS^ wM. ^^^^ 1^^ 48 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. [ESSAY reading, writing, arithmetic, and the first principles of grammar; to which shall be added, as far as may be, the rudiments of all the sciences that are in ordinary use. The latter however should not be brought forward too soon; and, if wisely delayed, the tyro himself will to a certain degree enter into the views of his instructor, and be disposed to essay P Quid valeant humeri, quid f err erecusent. But, above \ all, the beginnings of those studies should be en- ] couraged^ which unfold the imagination, familiarise \ us with the feelings, the joys and sufferings of our \ fellow-beings, and teach us to put ourselves in their place and eagerly fly to their assistance.
SECTION IV.
HOW FAR OUR GENUINE PROPENSITIES AND VOCATION SHOULD BE FAVOURED. — SELF-REVERENCE RECOMMEND- ED. — CONCLUSION.
I KNEW a man of eminent intellectual faculties^, one of whose favourite topics of moral prudence was, that it is the greatest mistake in the world to suppose, that, when we have discovered the special aspiration of the youthful mind, we are bound to do every thing in our power to assist its progress. He maintained on the contrary, that it is our true wisdom to place obstacles in its way, and to thwart it: as we may be well assured that, unless it is a mere caprice, it will shew its strength in conquering ^ Henry Fuseli.
II.] QF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. 49 difficulties^ and that all the obstacles that we can conjure up will but inspire it with the greater earnestness to attain final success.
The maxim here stated, taken to an unlimited extent, is doubtless a very dangerous one. There are obstacles that scarcely any strength of man would be sufficient to conquer. " Chill penury" will sometimes " repress the noblest rage," that almost ever animated a human spirit: and our wisest course will probably be, secretly to favour, even when we seem most to oppose, the genuine bent of the youthful aspirer.
But the thing of greatest importance is, that we should not teach him to estimate his powers at too low a rate. One of the wisest of all the precepts comprised in what are called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, is that, in which he enjoins his pupil to "reverence himself." Ambition is the noblest root that can be planted in the garden of the hu- man soul: not the ambition to be applauded and admired, to. be famous and looked up to, to be the darling theme of " stupid starers and of loud huz zas;" but the ambition to fill a respectable place in the theatre of society, to be useful and to be es- teemed, to feel that we have not lived in vliin, and that we are entitled to the most honourable of all dismissions, an enlightened self-approbation. And nothing can more powerfully tend to place this beyond our acquisition, even our contemplation, than the perpetual and hourly rebuffs which inge- 60 OF THS DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTSi [esSAT nuous youth isi so often doomed to sustain from the supercilious pedant^ and the rigid decision of his unfeeling elders. ^ Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the most valuable results of a well- conducted education. To accomplish this, it is most necessary that it should never be inculcated into vhim, that; he is dull. Upon.tibe principles of this £ssay> ^ly unfavourable appearances that may pre- sent themselves, do not arise from the dulness of the pupil, but from the error of those upon whose superintendence he is cast,' who require of him the things for which he is not adapted^ and neglect those in which he is qualified to excel.
It is further necessary, if self-respect is one of the most desirable results of a. well-conducted edu- cation, that, asi we should not humble the pupil in his own eyes by disgraceful and humiliating lan- guage, so we should abstain, as much as possible; from personal ill-treatment, and the employing towards him the measures <of an owner towards his purchased or indentured slave. Indignity is of all things the most hostile to the best purposes of a liberal education. It may be necessary occasionally to emplby, towards a human creature in his years of nonage, the stimulants of. exhortation and re- monstrance «ven in the pursuits to which he is best adapted, for the purpose of overcoming the insta- bility c^nd. fi^ts of idleness to which all men, and most of all in their early years, are subject: though Ik] of the distribution of TALENTSv £1 in such pursuits a necessity of this sort can scarcely be supposed. The bow must not always be bent 5 and it is good fdr us that we should occasionally relax and play die fool. It; may.more readily >be imagined, that some incitement may be called for in those things whichy as has been mentioned above, it may be fit he should learn 'though with but half a will. An freaks must not be indulged; admo- nition is salutary, and that the pupirl should be awakened by his instructor to sober reflection and to masculine exertion. Every Telemachus should have his Mentor. — But through the whole it is necessary that the spirit of the pupil should not be broken, and that he should not be treated with contumely. Stripes; should in all instances be re- garded as the last resort, and as a sort of problem set up for the wisdom of the wise to solve, whether the urgent case can arise in which it shall be requi- site to. have recourse to them. m. The principles here laid down have the strongest ) tendency to prove to us how little progress has yet I been made in the art of turning human creatures to \ the best account. Every man has his place, in j which if he can be fixed, the most fastidious judge j cannot look upon him with disdain. But,'\6 e£fect! this arrangement, an exact attention is required to ascertain the pursuit in which he will best succeed. In India the whole mass of the members of the community is divided into castes; and, instead of a scrupulous attention being paid to the early intima* e2 \ 1 \ \ 52 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TAL£NTS« [essAY tions of individual character^ it is already decided upon each, before he comes into the world, which child shall be a priest, and which a soldier, a phy^ sician, a lawyer, a merchant, and an artisan. In Europe we do not carry this so far, and are not so elaborately wrong. But the rudiments of the same folly flourish among us; and the accident of birth for the most part decides the method of life to which each individual with whatever violence shall be de* dicated. A very few only, by means of energies that no tyranny can subdue, escape from the operation of this murderous decree.
Nature never made a dunce. Imbecility of mind is as rare, as deformity of the animal frame. If this position be true, we have only to bear it in mind^ feelingly to convince ourselves, how wholesale the error is into which society has hitherto fallen in the destination of its members, and how much yet re^ mains to be done, before our common nature can be vindicated from the basest of all libels, the most murderous of all proscriptiens.
There is a passage in Voltaire, in which he expresses himself to this effect: '* It Ls after all but a slight line of separation that di^^ vides the «ian of genius from the man of ordinary mould." I re- member the place where, and the time when, I read this passage. But I have been unable to find the expression. It is however but reasonable that I should refer to it on this occasion, that I may hereby shew so eminent a modern concurring with the venerable ancient in an early era of letters, whose dictum I have prefixed to this Essay, to vouch to a certain extent for the truth of the doc- trine I have delivered.
III.] OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. 63 ESSAY III.
OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION.
In the preceding Essay I have endeavoured to establish the proposition, that every human crea- ture^ idiots and extraordinary cases excepted, is endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his organisation espe- cially fitted him.
There is however a sort of phenomenon, by no means of rare occurrence, which tends to place the human species under a less favourable point of view. Many men, as has already appeared, are forced into situations and pursuits ill assorted to their talents, and by that means are exhibited to their contemporaries in a light both despicable and ludicrous.
But this is not all. Men are not only placed, by the absurd choice of their parents, or an impe- rious concurrence of circumstances, in destinations and employments in which they can never appear to advantage: they frequently, without any exter- nal compulsion, select for themselves objects of their industry, glaringly unadapted to their powers, and in which all their efforts must necessarily ter- minate in miscarriage. < 54 OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. [ESSAY I remember a young man^ who had been bred a hair-dresser^ but who experienced, as he believed, the secret visitations, of, the Muse, and became in- spired. " With sad civility, and aching head," I perused no f^wef ^t^an six comedies from the pen of this aspiring genius, in no page of which I could discern any glimmering of poetry or wit, or in re» ality could form a^ guess what it was that the writer intended in his elaborate; effnsions. Such are the persona enumerated. by Eopa. in the Prologue to his Satires, a parsoii, liuich bemused in beer, A maudlin poetess^ a rhyming peer, A clerk, foredoomed, his father's soul to cross^ Wlio pens a stanza, when he should engross.
■.:■'. ■ -.f •■ ■.
Every manager of. a^ theatre, atod every publishing bookseller of eiiiinence, can produce you in each revolving season whole reams, almost cartloads, of blurred paper, testifying the frequent recurrence of this phenomenon.
The cause however of this painful mistake does not lie in the circumstance, that each man has not from the hand of nature an appropriate destination, a spliere assigned hizj^, in which, if life should be prolonged to him, he might be secure of the re- spect of his neighbours,! and might write upon his tomb, "I have fiUed'^n honourable career; d have finished my course.*' ' One of the most glating infirmities of our nature is discontent. One of the most unquestionable cha- III.] OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTIOVi* ^S racteristics of the liuman mind is the love of novelty k Omiie ignotum proTnagnifieo est* We^iire satiated with those objects which make a: part of our business in., every day^ and arei desirous oi trying something that is a stranger, to us..Wbatr^ ever we see through a mist, or in the ^iligfat, is apt to be apprehended by us as. something admi- rable, for the single reason that it is seen imperii fecdy* What we are sure that we can easily and adequately effect^ we despise. He that goes into battle with an adversary of more powerful muscl$^ or of greater practice than himselfi feels a tingling sensation,; not unallied to delight, very different from that which would occur to him, when his victory was easy and secure.;^ Each man is conscious what it i^.that he can certainly; effect, m This: does not.thiirefore present itself to him as an object of ambition. We have many of us internally something of the spirit ex-^ pressed,by the apostle: J'f Forgetting the things that are 'behind, we press forward to those that re- main.*' And, so long as this precept is soberly applied, no cooduct can,.be more worthy of praise. Improvemehi is the appropriate race of man. We cannot siand still; v If > [we do; not go forward/ We shall inevitabljf re<?ede.;:iS|iakespear9:when he wrote his Hamlet, did not Jino^ that he could produce Macbedi and QtheUo^.
But the progreiss of a man of reflection will be, to a considerable degree, in the path he has already > 56 OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION* [essAY entered. If he strikes into a new career, it will not be without deep premeditation. He will attempt nothing wantonly. He will carefully examine his powers, and see for what they are adapted. Sudet multum. He will be like the man, who first in a frail bark committed himself to the treachery of the waves. He will keep near to the shore; he will tremble for the audaciousness of his enter- prise; he will feel that it calls for all his alertness and vigilance. The man of reflection will not be- gin, till he feels his mind swelling with his purposed theme, till his blood flows fitfully and with full pulses through his veins, till his eyes sparkle with the intenseness of his conceptions, and his ^^ bosom labours with the God." f^ But the fool dashes in at once. He does not \ calculate the dangers of his enterprise. He does , not study the map of the country he has to tra- verse. He does not measure the bias of the ground, I the rising knolls and the descending slopes that I are before him. He obeys a blind and unreflecting impulse. / His case bears a striking resemblance to what is related of Oliver Goldsmith. Goldsmith was a man of the most felicitous endowments. His prose flows with such ease, copiousness and grace, that it resembles the song of the sirens. His verses are among the most spirited, natural and unaffected in the English language. Yet he was not con- tented. If he saw a consummate dancer, he knew III.] Of INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. &7 no reason why he should not do as well^ and im-^ mediately felt disposed to essay his powers. If he heard an accomplished musician^ he undertook to enter the lists with him. His conduct was of a piece with that of the countryman, who, cheap-* ening spectacles, and making experiment of them for ever in vain upon the book before him, was at length asked, " Could you evei: read without spec- tacles?" to which he was, obliged to answer, *^ I do not know; I never tried." The vanity of Goldsmith was infinite; and his failure in such attempts must necessarily have been ludicrous.
The splendour of the thing presented to our ob- servation, awakens the spirit within us. The ap- plause and admiration. excited by certain achieve- ments and accomplishments infects us with desire. We are like the youthful Themistocles, who com- plained that tl\e trophies of Miltiades would not let him sleep. We are like the novice Guido, who, while looking on the paintings of Michael Angelo, exclaimed, ^^I also am a painter." Themistocles and Guido were right, for they were of kindred spirit to the great men they admired. But the ap- plause bestowed on others will often generate un- easiness and a sigh, in men least of all qualified by nature to acquire similar applause. We are not contented to proceed in the path of obscure useful- ness and worth. We are eager to be admired, and thus often engage in pursuits for which perhaps we are of all men least adapted. Each one would be 58 OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION* [esSAY.
the m&n above him. And this is the cause why we see so many individuals^ who might have passed their lives with honour^ devote themselves tiD in- credible efforts^ only that they may be made stt<- premely ridiculous. ^ To this let it be add^d^ that the wisest man that ever existed, never yet knew himself, especially in the morning of life. The person, who ultimately stamped his history with the most heroic achieve- ments, was far perhaps even from suspecting, in the dawn of hiis existence, that he should realise the miracles that mark its maturity. He might be ready to exclaim, with Hazael in the Scriptures, ^^ Is thy servant more than man, that he should da this great thing?" The sublimest poet that ever sung, was penadventure, while a stripling, uncon- scious of the treasures which formed a part of the fabric of his mind, and unsuspicious of the high destiny that in the sequel awaited him. What wonder then, that, awaking from the insensibility and torpor which precede the activity of the soul; some' 'men should. believe in ^ fortune that shall never be theirs, and aptidpate a glory they are fated nefver to sustain! And for the same reason,, when unanticipated failure becomes their lot, they are unwilling at first to be discouraged, and find a certain g^latitry in persevering, and " against hope believing in hope.'* This is the explanation of a countless multitude of failures that Occur in the career of literature.
Nor 19 this phenomenon confined to literature, in all the ' varioiiS' paths of human existence/ that appears to have something in them splendid and alluringy there are perpetual instances of daring ad^ ventures, unattended vith the smsillest rational hope of success. Optat ^hippia bos piger.
AH quit their sphere^ and rush into the skies.
But, beside these instances of perfect and iglariag miscarriage, there^ar^ examples 'worthy of a deepei^ regret j whiere the juvenile candidate sets out in the morning of life with the highest promise, with colours flyingy and the ispirit-stirriiig note of gallant preparation/ When yet his voyage of life is destined to'temiinate in total discomfiture. I have seen such an- o^e; • whoise^' e^iiy- instructors regarded him with the mo^ttsanguin^'^ expectation, kiid hiai elders ad-^ mired ^him, l^^hile his youthful -competitors unreM hictantly confessed his superiority, and gave way on either side to his triumphant career; and nU this has terminated in nothing.
In reality the splendid 'March of genius is beset with a thousand difficulties. > /'The race is not always to the swift, ndr the battle to- the Strong.*' A mnltitude/'itf unthought-of qualifications are re- quired; and it depends a:t least as much upon th<; nicely ' maintained balance of these, as upon the copiousness atid brilliancy of each, whether the re-^ suit shall be auspicious. The progress of genius is like the flight of an arrow; a breath may turn it J £0 OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. [ESSAY