Date: 1767

"The conversation-wits resemble those persons, whose ideas pass through their minds in too quick succession to be distinct; but who, nevertheless, being endued with a natural volubility of expression, acquit themselves to admiration in company; while one is at a loss to find either sense or gramm...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"This difference must certainly proceed from the transforming power of Imagination, whose rays illuminate the objects we contemplate; and which, without the lustre shed on them by this faculty, would appear unornamented and undistinguished."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Fancy, if not regulated by the dictates of impartial Judgment, is apt to mislead the mind and to throw glaring colours on objects that possess no intrinsic excellence."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"By this means it happens, that though the principles of a just Taste are implanted in the mind of every man of Genius, yet, by a neglect of proper cultivation, or too great an indulgence of the extravagant ramblings of Fancy, those principles are vitiated, and Taste becomes sometimes INCORRECT,...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"The mind in this case has recourse to and relies on its own fund."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Conscious of its native energy, it delights to expand its faculties by the most vigorous exertion, Ranging through the unbounded regions of nature and of art, it explores unbeaten tracks of thought, catches a glimpse of some objects which lie far beyond the sphere of ordinary observation, and ob...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Very different ideas however are excited in the minds of some, from those excited in the minds of others, even by the first of these, which may be said to be the original fountain of our knowledge, though the ideas produced by it are conveyed by organs common to human nature; and still more diff...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Some persons indeed have few ideas except such as are derived from sensation; they seldom ruminate upon, revolve, and compare the impressions made upon their minds, unless at the time they are made, or while they are recent in their remembrance: hence they become incapable of tracing those relat...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Or, to set the difference betwixt philosophic and poetic Imagination in another light by the use of an image, we may observe, that in the mind of the Philosopher the RAYS of fancy are more COLLECTED, and more CONCENTRATED in one point; and consequently are more favourable to ACCURATE and DISTINC...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Let it be observed therefore, that as Invention is the peculiar and distinguishing province of every species of Genius. Imagination claims an undivided empire over this province."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)