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"Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Author

An Essay on Genius

Place of Publication

London and Edinburgh

Publisher

Printed for W. Strahan, T.Cadell, and W. Creech

Date

1774

Metaphor

"Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy."

Metaphor in Context

Thus, while imagination is active in conceiving all the various combinations and arrangements of the ideas which it has collected, judgment must be as indesatigable in surveying them, and determining concerning their real force and consequences. It must remark in an instant those positions of them which are unfit for answering the purpose, and be able, without losing much time in scrutinizing them, to pitch upon those that are fit. Fancy throws out both the worthless earth and the rich ore; judgment, like a skilful refiner, distinguishes the one from the other, and purifies the gold contained in the latter, from the dross with which it is intermingled. The restless efforts of the most healthful imagination would be both useless and endless, if they were not subjected to the cognizance of reason. To imagine all the possible arrangements of a set of ideas, were an unmeaning play of thought, if they merely passed through the mind, like the images that are said to succeed one another in the brown study, without reason being able to arrest such of them as it approves. Were reason only slow in her determinations, in comparison with the quickness with which fancy conceives, like Una's dwarf, lagging behind her far away, even this would greatly impede the work of genius, retard its progress, or stop it altogether by constantly curbing the impetuosity of fancy. Or if its spirit were too hardy to be wholly broken, it would outrun its companion; it would dispose a man to take up with the first conception that occurred, rather than weary himself in attempts to procure better, when judgment were so dull as not to distinguish readily which deserves the preference.
(I.iv, pp. 88-9)