Genius is the expansiveness of the intellect, the force of imagination and the activity of the soul. The way in which one receives his ideas is dependent on the way in which one remembers them

Genius is the expansiveness of the intellect, the force of imagination and the activity of the soul. The way in which one receives his ideas is dependent on the way in which one remembers them. Man is thrown into the universe with more or less vivid feelings which belong to all mankind. Most people only experience strong feelings when the impression of those objects has an immediate effect on their needs or their tastes. Everything that is foreign to their passion, all that is without a connection to their way of living or is not apparent to them, or is only seen for a moment without being felt and to be forgotten forever.

The man of genius is he whose soul is more expansive and struck by the feelings of all others; interested by all that is in nature never to receive an idea unless it evokes a feeling; everything excites him and on which nothing is lost.

When the soul is affected by the object itself, it is by the memory of it; however in the man of genius , the imagination goes farther, it remembers with more striking feelings than when they were made, because to these ideas are attached a thousand others which appropriately give rise to the feeling.

Genius is occupied by the objects that surround it, it does not remember; it sees. It does not limit itself by looking, it feels. Within the silence and darkness of one’s study it enjoys the full sweetness of the mood; it is frozen by the whistling winds, it is scorched by the sun, and it is frightened by storms. The soul is often delighted by these moments; they provide it with pleasure that is important to it and it gives itself to anything that can enlarge it; with vibrant colors and inalterable habits it wishes to give substance to ghosts who are its work and make it rise to the occasion or which simply amuse it.

Does it wish to describe some of these objects that have just disturbed it? Sometimes human beings divest themselves of their imperfections, they only imprint onto their paintings the sublime and enjoyable; then genius paints the beautiful: at times it only sees in the most tragic events and the most terrible circumstances and then genius paints in the most sober colors; the energetic expressions of trials and pain; it animates matter, it colors thought in the heat of enthusiasm, it has neither the disposition nor the ability to follow its ideas; it is transfigured into the persons that it transports; it has assumed their character; if it has proved to the highest degree the heroic passions, as would be the confidence of a great soul which the force of its feelings raises above all danger such as the love of country transports one to self-forgetfulness, it produces the sublime; the me of Medea, the he died of old Horace, the I am consul of Rome of Brutus: transported by other passions, he allowed Hermione say, who told you that I was loved to Orosmane?; and Thieste, I recognize my brother.

The force of this enthusiasm inspires the correct words when it possesses energy; it is often given to sacrifice by enduring characters; it inspires the harmony of imitation, images of all kinds, the most sensible signs to follow and imitative sounds as the words which characterize them.

The imagination assumes different forms; it borrows them from the different qualities that form the character of the soul. Passion, the diversity of circumstances, certain qualities of the intellect provide a particular shape to the imagination. It does not allow sentimentality into its ideas, since there is not always a link between the imagination and beings.

Genius is not always genial; at times it is more kind than sublime, it senses and paints more of the of the beautiful than the gracious, its experience allows for more of a gentle emotion than the extreme.

At times, the imagination in the mind of a genius is happy; it sweeps up the imperfections of man, his faults and his ordinary follies; the opposite of order is ridicule but as such a novelty it appears that it is the swift glance of a genius which has placed the ridicule into the object which he discovers, the happy imagination of an expansive genius enlarges the field of ridicule and while the common sees it and senses it in the shock of established habits, genius discovers and senses it in that which wounds the universal order.

Taste is often separate from genius as taste is the work of study and time, it relies on the knowledge of a multitude of rules which are established or presumed to be and it allows for beautiful things which are conventional. For something to be beautiful according to the rules of taste, it also must be elegant, finished, refined without the appearance of being so; to be of genius , there are times when neglect is necessary, that it appears to be out of sorts, difficult to achieve, wild. The sublime and genius shine in Shakespeare as does lightening throughout a long night; Racine is always beautiful, Homer is full of genius and Virgil is elegant.