"It is this that puts it in the power of genius to show itself: without this, its finest conceptions would perish, like an infant in the womb; without this, the brightest imagination would be like a vigorous mind confined in a lame or paralytic body."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London and Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed for W. Strahan, T.Cadell, and W. Creech
Date
1774
Metaphor
"It is this that puts it in the power of genius to show itself: without this, its finest conceptions would perish, like an infant in the womb; without this, the brightest imagination would be like a vigorous mind confined in a lame or paralytic body."
Metaphor in Context
On the other hand, there may be some degree of invention in a particular art, without a capacity of correspondent execution. A person may compose in music, who cannot perform. Many have invented the subject of a picture, and in idea designed the whole of it, so that, from their description of their conception, a master might execute it, though they themselves never used the pencil. Others might proceed a step farther; they could sketch out the piece, without being able to colour it. It is remarked of Pietro Testa, that in drawings, his execution is both masterly and correct, but notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding his having possessed invention sublime and exuberant, he attempted often, without success, to acquire the art of colouring. In like manner, a person may conceive the whole plan of a poem, and even express it agreeably in prose, who cannot cloath it with numbers. The Telemachus of Fenelon is a direct example of this. Such persons possess real genius, and perhaps a high degree of it, so far as it extends: but they show not a genius complete in the art to which it points. In order to compleat genius in any of the arts, a man must possess the power of employing a proper vehicle, congruous to the nature of that art, for conveying the conceptions of his imagination to the senses and the souls of other men. It is this that puts it in the power of genius to show itself: without this, its finest conceptions would perish, like an infant in the womb; without this, the brightest imagination would be like a vigorous mind confined in a lame or paralytic body. Want of skill in execution was, perhaps, the only thing that hindered some of the earliest painters, and some of the first restorers of the art, who are now neglected and almost forgotten, from obtaining a very high rank.
(III.vii, pp. 418-20)
Provenance
Reading in C-H Lion
Citation
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>
Date of Entry
06/27/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.