Rhode Island American And Gazette

Genius of every kind belongs to some innate temperament; it does not necessarily imply a particular bent, because that may possibly be the effect of circumstances; but, without question, the peculiar quality is inborn, and particular to the individual. All hear and see much like; but there is an indefinable though wide difference, between the ear of the musician, or the eye of the painter, compared with the seeing and hearing organs of ordinary men; and it is in something like that difference in which genius consists. Genius is however an ingredient of mind, more easily described by its effects than by its qualities. It is as the fragrance independent of the freshness and complexion of the rose; as the light on the cloud; as the bloom on the cheek of beauty, of which the possessor is unconscious until the charm has been seen by its influence on others; it is the internal golden flame of the opal; a something which may be abstracted from the thing in which it appears without changing the quality of its substance, its form or its affinities.—Gal.