ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE. INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. OF LITERATURE. 1. LITERATURE is the art of composing works of genius and forming a correct judgment of them. 2. It requires a profound knowledge of the Belles Lettres, that is, of the rules of grammar and the precepts of composition, combined with the study of the best models, both in prose and verse. 3. The knowledge of these rules and precepts is necessary; but the study of the best models is still more so. 4. This knowledge and study, however, of itself, can only, at the farthest, enable a person to form a correct judgment of works of genius. He who aspires to the reputation of an author, must add the constant practice of composition. 5. In whatever situation a man may be placed, the pursuits of literature form an inexhaustible source of pure pleasure and solid enjoyment. They are the organ and ornament of the sciences. By the exercise of criticism, the practice of composition, and the study of eminent authors, these pursuits direct genius, fertilize the imagination, form the judgment, develop the understanding, elevate the soul, deter from vice, inspire a love for virtue, polish the manners, and confer upon those who cultivate them a marked superiority and a decided influence over their fellow-men. 6. A work of genius is a composition, all the parts of which tend to one object as their end. 7. This object or end is, according to the nature of the composition or work, to instruct, to please, or to move, or, it may be, to produce all these three effects. SECT. II. OF GENIUS. 8. Genius (numen, ingenium, vovs,) creates or rather invents the plan of the work, and suggests the means of executing it, in order to attain the end proposed. 9. Memory places her stores at its disposal, and thus furnishes it with the materials upon which it works. 10. Imagination presents to it absent objects, whether material or spiritual, in all their circumstances of relation or resemblance, with the same vividness of conception as if they were actually present to the mind. 11. Sensibility animates and vivifies its conceptions, by rendering it susceptible of receiving the impressions of the different passions and emotions, and enabling it to communicate them to others. 12. Judgment enlightens it by enabling it to discern what is true from what is false. 13. Taste guides and directs it, enabling it to perceive and discern what is beautiful from what is not so, that is, what is fitting to promote the object in view from what is not so; with that delicacy of feeling which perceives the most minute beauties, as well as the smallest defects, and that justness of conception which distinguishes, with certainty, true beauties from those which only appear so, and discovers, when it is possible, the reason why true beauties have the power of pleasing, compares those of the same kind, and forms a judgment of their respective merits. SECT. III. OF BEAUTY. 14. Beauty is merely order and unity, or, otherwise, the direction or adaptation of all the parts of a whole to one only end. 15. There are three kinds of beauty: I. Essential beauty, called also metaphysical, supernatural beauty; namely, God, the Being to whom all other beings must finally be referred. II. Moral beauty; namely, Man:-considered, 1. In his relation to God; namely, dependence. 2. In his relation to his fellow-creatures; namely, justice, beneficence, etc.; and 3, In his relation to other creatures; namely, superiority. III. Physical or natural beauty; namely, Nature:-considered as ministering to the service and pleasure of man, and, through man, to its Author. I do not speak of artificial beauty, because it is nothing more than the representation of the natural, moral, or essential beauty, by imitation or expression. SECTION IV. OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENIUS AND TALENT. 16. Every man possesses within himself the idea, the sentiment, the image of this beauty, but to feel it in such a manner as to be able to represent it, to imitate it, and to express it in a work or composition, it is necessary that all the faculties of the mind, in a certain degree, should be united. 17. This union of the faculties, in a greater degree than ordinary, constitutes talent;—in a still superior degree, it constitutes genius, properly so called. 18. Genius and talent are distinguished by their works, that is, by the dignity, more or less sublime, by the difficulty, more or less great, of the end proposed to be effected, by the extent, more or less vast, of their plans, and by the wisdom and the simplicity of their means of execution. Examples.-The Iliad, Paradise Lost, Bossuet Disc. Hist. Univ., Alexander, Cæsar, St. Peter of Rome, Mahomet. SECT. V. OF RULES. 19. Genius and even talent, having in themselves, in their moments of inspiration, the idea and the feeling of the beautiful, would always give a faithful re |