should probably discover, that their minds were early filled with such objects as fitted them for the achievements for which they have been celebrated. Macknight and Campbell, at an early age, proposed to themselves the works, which they so successfully completed, when time had given them opportunity to equal what the zeal of youth had projected. Newton, at the age of twenty two, had sketched the plan of his greatest productions, his Opticks aud Principia; and the Roman Conqueror, who destroyed the liberties of his country, determined at the age of sixteen to be made perpetual Dictator. Facts therefore confirm the deductions of reason, that an early proposal of great objects is an effectual aid of talent. Often has Genius been buried in indolence, because objects sufficient to produce active and persevering exertion, were not presented. Often have its efforts been desultory and useless, because some object answerable to its powers, did not give them direction.

It is a mistake which has proved fatal to Genius, that the discipline of the mind by those means whichr are employed in the earlier stages of mental improvement, may be laid aside when the period has arrived that knowledge is to be applied to use, and the talents exercised in the active pursuits of life. It seems strange, when the principle is so well established, that the mind must be disciplined by the study of the Belles Lettres to cultivate the taste, and by application to the mathematicks to strengthen the reasoning powers and to form habits of close attention; that it should be concluded, these studies have no use when a collegiate course is finished, and they are no longer made necessary by the authority of a master. However happily the scholar may have succeeded in his first preparations for acting an useful and honourable part in the profession in which he is to engage; such is the influence of intercourse with the world to interrupt previous habits, and such the tendency of the

mind to lose the effects produced at first, unless the same causes of improvement are kept in operation, that there is no period of life in which the discipline of the mind by classical studies should be relinquished. In military life, the success of an actual engagement is deemed dependent on the continuance of frequent discipline in the camp.. And for a similar reason, Genius requires the aid of frequent application to these classical pursuits. It was the discernment of this, which led Tully to exercise himself by declamation, after he had become the first orator of Rome; and Parsons to begin the day with a diagram, and frequently to preside on the bench, it is said, with Homer by his side.

Do we wonder how it occurs, that scholars of high promise, and reckoned giants of Genius, often prove mere pigmies in their professions? This does not generally arise from having injudiciously chosen their profession, nor from the absence of moral principle; but more frequently, as we believe, from a neglect of those auxiliary studies which should sustain their Genius, and give a prsevering tone of high exertion to their minds. No wonder if lawyers, laying aside their rhetoric, become loquacious; or priests, forgetting their logick, turn enthusiasts.

If the business of our professions should be admitted to be sufficient to preserve the strength of the mind, still something is wanting to secure correctne-s. The mind itself, when constantly bent to one profession and one class of ideas, is in danger of losing its balance. The best exercise of the judgment, and consequently an important aid of Genius, are those studies which, while they afford sufficient action to its powers, are divested of those considerations which may bias us against or in favour of the truths they convey. Such are mathematicks and several branches of philosophy. They are waters deep, clear, and invigorating to Genius. While the mind successfully explores them, it gains that consciousness of its powers which is neces

sary to any generous attempts. In saying, however, that after the scholar becomes more actively employed, Genius must be aided by such studies as have been mentioned, I do not mean to encourage that undue attachment to them which shall seduce a man from his duty; but that attention, which, by disciplining the mind, shall be subordinate to our principal objects, and the means of increased usefulness in our professions.

A difficult, yet important enquiry, in a discussion of the aids of Genius is-How far it is favoured by attempts at originality.

Genius is not aided by that extreme originality, which cannot at all combine its materials with the products of other minds; which stands so aloof from all others, that although it may cause admiration, it has not ideas and principles enough in common with the generality of men, to convince them of the justness of its own convictions, or persuade them to its own purposes. We give those Geniuses our applause, who love the comet's orbit, and can successfully perform such eccentrick and hazardous revolutions. But we take those as guides, "who, however lofty and original in their native constitution, have condescended to be broken and tempered by rules." Or, to resume the allusion, who perform their revolutions with less eccentricity, but with equal force and more regularity. Neither constant attempts at originality, nor a servile dependence on other minds, is so favourable to Genius, as a union of original conceptions with that species of knowledge which may be called the common sense of the learned and the wise. If we know not what others have known, we may be very original, and yet add nothing to the common stock; because we have only invented what was as well invented before. If originality is in some measure lost by the process of acquiring what others have known; yet that power of invention which remains, has a wider compass of useful subjects to exert itself upon, and will be found foremost

in the race, not so much by its superior agility, as its superior wisdom.

It is scarcely to be told, which is most inimical to a successful pursuit of truth, that quiet submission to authority which takes every absurdity upon trust; or that intoxicating fondness for originality, which estimates the value of principles by their novelty, not their use; which, of all the suggestions of its own fancy, believes those the most true which are most surprising, and of all the opinions of others, most easily adopts those which are singular and paradoxical.

It is a fact, that the most improved and successful geniuses have appeared in clusters. Witness the ages of Cicero, Addison, Johnson. Who can estimate too highly the combined exertions of those ages, in their literary clubs? Those great geniuses were sufficiently original to present to the world combinations of thought both novel and just; (and this we presume to say is the highest and most difficult kind of originality ;) but they were sufficiently wise to provide checks against the aberrations to which they were liable, and assistance in filling up their plans, by a free communication and interchange of ideas.

Indeed those may most safely indulge originality, who have most learning; for they are prepared to judge of their own discoveries. Those Generals may be boldest, who have most skill in military tacticks; and those vessels may carry most sail, which are well provided with ballast.

Undoubtedly, more might be said in favour of attempts at originality; but it is our design to speak of the aids of Genius in those lights which are not considered according to their relative importance.

You do not come here, on this occasion, to hear a sermon, or a moral essay; but there is no just reason why I should not notice morality and religion, so far as my subject demands-in other words, so far as they may be shewn to be aids of Genius.

No Genius is advanced without industry. And no important object of Genius can be obtained, without a more steady pursuit than those are capable of, who are devoted to their pleasures and their passions. 'I hat vice enervates the mind, is a remark which deserves to be made familiar, on account of its truth and importance. When the imagination finds its delight in gross satisfactions, cool and patient thinking are insipid and irksome. Honourable pursuits of Genius are then easily relinquished. Even aspiring ambition, in such cases, stoops and submits to the dominion of the senses. Hence the sad spectacles of geniuses, lost to themselves and the community; respecting whom, it must be said, they have only the melancholly pleasure of hearing what they might have been, and the remorse and shame of knowing what they are.

As it respects the assistance which religion affords to Genius; candour would lead us to acknowledge, that if morals are as important to mental cultivation as has been described, religion is no less essential to morality. Would we practice self-government, would we control our appetites and passions sufficiently to cultivate Genius with success; it is a religious sense of Deity and of his moral government, which enables us to do this with greatest ease and most perseverance, This influence of religion upon Genius, though indirect, will yet be readily discerned to be not the less real and efficient. There is also a direct influence, arising from the truths of natural and revealed religion; truths which in comparison of all others, are the most sublime and powerful, and as such, calculated to exalt and invigorate the mind that imbibes and contemplates them. If there are forms of religion which repress freedom of thought, I refer not to these; but to true religion, which encourages the exertions of the understanding, by representing its high origin, nature and destination, and by proposing the greatest objects of pursuit, and filling it with the noblest conceptions.