Of the irritability of genius.--Genius in society often in a state of suffering.--Equality of temper more prevalent among men of letters.--Of the occupation of making a great name.--Anxieties of the most successful.--Of the inventors.--Writers of learning.-- Writers of taste. --Artists. 69
The spirit of literature and the spirit of society.--The inventors. --Society offers seduction and not reward to men of genius.--The notions of persons of fashion of men of genius.--The habitudes of the man of genius distinct from those of the man of society.-- Study, meditation, and enthusiasm, the progress of genius.--The disagreement between the men of the world and the literary character. 89
Conversations of men of genius.--Their deficient agreeableness may result from qualities which conduce to their greatness.--Slow-minded men not the dullest.--The conversationists not the ablest writers. --Their true excellence in conversation consists of associations with their pursuits. 99
Literary solitude.--Its necessity.--Its pleasures.--Of visitors by profession.--Its inconveniences. 109
The meditations of Genius.--A work on the Art of Meditation not yet produced.--Predisposing the mind.--Imagination awakens imagination. --Generating feelings by music.--Slight habits.--Darkness and silence, by suspending the exercise of our senses, increase the vivacity of our conceptions.--The arts of memory.--Memory the foundation of genius.--Inventions by several to preserve their own moral and literary character.--And to assist their studies.--The meditations of genius depend on habit.--Of the night-time.--A day of meditation should precede a day of composition.--Works of magnitude from slight conceptions.--Of thoughts never written.--The art of meditation exercised at all hours and places.--Continuity of attention the source of philosophical discoveries. --Stillness of meditation the first state of existence in genius. 116
The enthusiasm of genius.--A state of mind resembling a waking dream distinct from reverie.--The ideal presence distinguished from the real presence.--The senses are really affected in the ideal world, proved by a variety of instances.--Of the rapture or sensation of deep study in art, science, and literature. --Of perturbed feelings, in delirium.--In extreme endurance of attention.--And in visionary illusions.--Enthusiasts in literature and art.--Of their self-immolations. 136