CHAPTER XV.

Self-praise of genius.—­The love of praise instinctive in the nature of genius.—­A high opinion of themselves necessary for their great designs.  —­The Ancients openly claimed their own praise.—­And several Moderns.—­An author knows more of his merits than his readers.—­And less of his defects.—­Authors versatile in their admiration and their malignity.

Vanity, egotism, a strong sense of their own sufficiency, form another accusation against men of genius; but the complexion of self-praise must alter with the occasion; for the simplicity of truth may appear vanity, and the consciousness of superiority seem envy—­to Mediocrity.  It is we who do nothing, and cannot even imagine anything to be done, who are so much displeased with self-lauding, self-love, self-independence, self-admiration, which with the man of genius may often be nothing but an ostensible modification of the passion of glory.

He who exults in himself is at least in earnest; but he who refuses to receive that praise in public for which he has devoted so much labour in his privacy, is not; for he is compelled to suppress the very instinct of his nature.  We censure no man for loving fame, but only for showing us how much he is possessed by the passion:  thus we allow him to create the appetite, but we deny him its aliment.  Our effeminate minds are the willing dupes of what is called the modesty of genius, or, as it has been termed, “the polished reserve of modern times;” and this from the selfish principle that it serves at least to keep out of the company its painful pre-eminence.  But this “polished reserve,” like something as fashionable, the ladies’ rouge, at first appearing with rather too much colour, will in the heat of an evening die away till the true complexion come out.  What subterfuges are resorted to by these pretended modest men of genius, to extort that praise from their private circle which is thus openly denied them!  They have been taken by surprise enlarging their own panegyric, which might rival Pliny’s on Trajan, for care and copiousness; or impudently veiling themselves with the transparency of a third person; or never prefixing their name to the volume, which they would not easily forgive a friend to pass unnoticed.

Self-love is a principle of action; but among no class of human beings has nature so profusely distributed this principle of life and action as through the whole sensitive family of genius.  It reaches even to a feminine susceptibility.  The love of praise is instinctive in their nature.  Praise with them is the evidence of the past and the pledge of the future.  The generous qualities and the virtues of a man of genius are really produced by the applause conferred on him.  “To him whom the world admires, the happiness of the world must be dear,” said Madame DE STAeEL.  ROMNEY, the painter, held as a maxim that every diffident artist required “almost