5 quotes
After the golden age of Latinity, we gradually slide into the silver, and at length precipitately descend into the iron.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
An excessive indulgence in the pleasures of social life constitutes the great interests of a luxuriant and opulent age
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
A work, however, should be judged by its design and its execution, and not by any preconceived notion of what it ought to be according to the critic, rather than the author.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
Theories of genius are the peculiar constructions of our own philosophical times; ages of genius had passed away, and they left no other record than their works; no preconcerted theory described the workings of the imagination to be without imagination, nor did they venture to teach how to invent invention.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)