Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

An Essay on Genius

London and Edinburgh

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

1774

"Penetration implies such a force of imagination as leads to the comprehension and explication of a subject: brightness of imagination fits a man for adorning a subject. A penetrating mind emits the rays by which truth is discovered: a bright fancy supplies the colours by which beauty is produced."

Both penetration and brightness imply a great extent and compass of imagination, or great vigour of the associating principles; but they imply different sorts of compass and vigour. Penetration implies such a force of imagination as leads to the comprehension and explication of a subject: brightness of imagination fits a man for adorning a subject. A penetrating mind emits the rays by which truth is discovered: a bright fancy supplies the colours by which beauty is produced. There are many peculiarities of imagination, which contribute to the formation of these opposite characters: by tracing out these, our general description of the distinction between genius for science and genius for the arts, will be justified, and a more particular view will be obtained of the difference of these two kinds.
(III.ii, pp. 323-4)

Light::Rays Uncategorized::Colors

Reading in C-H Lion

Only 1 entry in ESTC (1774).

An Essay on Genius. By Alexander Gerard, D.D. Professor of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen. (London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell, and W. Creech at Edinburgh 1774). <Link to ECCO>

06/27/2013