Title:  ‘Of Genius’, in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation

Author:  Aaron Hill

Commentator:  Gretchen Graf Pahl

Release Date:  May 20, 2005 [EBook #15870]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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Series Four
Men, Manners and Critics

No. 2

Anonymous, “Of Genius”, in The Occasional Paper,
Volume III, Number 10 (1719)

and

Aaron Hill, Preface to The Creation (1720)

With an Introduction by
Gretchen Graf Pahl

The Augustan Reprint Society
March, 1949
Price:  One Dollar

GENERAL EDITORS

Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan

Edward Niles Hooker, University of California, Los Angeles

H.T.  SWEDENBERG, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles

ASSISTANT EDITOR

W. Earl Britton, University of Michigan

ADVISORY EDITORS

EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington

BENJAMIN BOYCE, University of Nebraska

LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan

CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University

JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University

ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago

SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota

ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas

JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen Mary College, London

Lithoprinted from copy supplied by author
by
Edwards Brothers, Inc. 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

[Transcriber’s Note:  Some of the latin footnotes and the errata were difficult or impossible to read.  These are annotated.]

INTRODUCTION

The anonymous essay “Of Genius,” which appeared in the Occasional Paper of 1719, still considers “genius” largely a matter of aptitude or talent, and applies the term to the “mechanick” as well as the fine arts.  The work is, in fact, essentially a pamphlet on education.  The author’s main concern is training, and study, and conscious endeavor.  Naturally enough, his highest praise—­even where poetry is in question—­is reserved for those solid Augustan virtues of “judgment” and “good sense.”