In a letter of 2 July 1816 to Sir Walter Scott, Charles Robert Maturin writes:

I think whatever tends to Efface the radical distinctions of intellectual character, and reduce all the wild and wayward shoots of Mind, stubbed, unsightly and grotesque as they may be, to one smooth-shaven Level, by the ponderous operation of the Critical Roller -- Whoever does this, does -- mischief -- The original workings of mind are so rarely seen, we are all so shaped & moulded by Education and society, so "graven by Art and Man's device" -- that an original impression however wild or Rude or fantastic as it may be, is worth something, though it should not have the good fortune like Pyrrhus's Ring to bear for its Legend the Muses and Apollo on the Gem--... I have no power of affecting, no hope of instructing, no play or other production of mine will...