Genius is a part of natural Constitution, not acquir’d, but born with us.  Yet it is capable of Cultivation and Improvement.  It has been a common Question, whether a Man be born a Poet or made one? but both must concur.  Nature and Art must contribute their Shares to compleat the Character.  Limbs alone will not make a Dancer, or a Wrestler.  Nor will Genius alone make a good Poet; nor the meer Strength of natural Abilities make a considerable Artist of any kind.  Good Rules, and these reduc’d to Practice, are necessary to this End.  And Use and Exercise in this, as well as in all other Cases, are a second Nature.  And, oftentimes, the second Nature makes a prodigious Improvement of the Force and Vigour of the first.

It has been long ago determined by the great Masters of Letters, that good Sense is the chief Qualification of a good Writer.

Scribendi certe sapere est & Principium & Fons.

Horat.

Yet the best natural Parts in the World are capable of much Improvement by a due Cultivation.

Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,
Rectique cultus Pectora roborant.

Horat.

The Spectator’s golden Scales, let down from Heaven to discover the true Weight and Value of Things, expresses this Matter in a Way which at once shews, a Genius, and its Cultivation.  “There is a Saying among the Scots, that an Ounce of Mother-Wit, is worth a Pound of Clergy.  I was sensible of the Truth of this Saying, when I saw the difference between the Weight of natural Parts and that of Learning.  I observ’d that it was an hundred Times heavier than before, when I put Learning into the same Scale with it.”

It has been observ’d, of an English Author, that he would be all Genius.  He would reap the Fruits of Art, but without the Study and Pains of it.  The Limae Labor is what he cannot easily digest.  We have as many Instances of Originals, this way, as any Nation can produce.  Men, who without the help of Learning, by the meer Force of natural Ability, have produced Works which were the Delight of their own Times, and have been the Wonder of Posterity.  It has been a Question, whether Learning would have improved or spoiled them.  There appears somewhat so nobly Wild and Extravagant in these great Genij, as charms infinitely more, than all the Turn and Polishing which enters into the French Bel Esprit, or the Genius improved by Reading and Conversation.

But tho’ this will hold in some very rare Instances, it must be much for its Advantage in ordinary Cases, that a Genius should be diligently and carefully cultivated.  In order to this, it should be early watched and observ’d.  And this is a matter that requires deep Insight into Humane Nature.  It is not so easy as many imagine, to pronounce what the proper Genius of a Youth is.  Every one who will be fiddling, has not presently a Genius