ous
treatise called Deinology, or instructions for a Young Barrister,
which confirms our opinion upon this subject. An orator, by the
judicious preparation of the minds of his audience, may increase the
effect of his best arguments. A Grecian painter,[73] before he would
produce a picture which he had finished, representing a martial
enterprise, ordered martial music to be played, to raise the
enthusiasm of the assembled spectators; when their imagination was
sufficiently elevated, he uncovered the picture, and it was beheld
with sympathetic transports of applause.

It is usually thought, that persons of extraordinary imagination are
deficient in judgment: by proper education, this evil might be
prevented. We may observe that persons, who have acquired particular
facility in certain exercises of the imagination, can, by voluntary
exertion, either excite or suppress certain trains of ideas on which
their enthusiasm depends. An actor, who storms and raves whilst he is
upon the stage, appears with a mild and peaceable demeanor a moment
afterwards behind the scenes. A poet, in his inspired moments, repeats
his own verses in his garret with all the emphasis and fervour of
enthusiasm; but when he comes down to dine with a mixed convivial
company, his poetic fury subsides, a new train of ideas takes place in
his imagination. As long as he has sufficient command over himself to
lay aside his enthusiasm in company, he is considered as a reasonable,
sensible man, and the more imagination he displays in his poems, the
better. The same exercise of fancy, which we admire in one case, we
ridicule in another. The enthusiasm which characterizes the man of
genius, borders upon insanity.

When Voltaire was teaching mademoiselle Clairon, the celebrated
actress, to perform an impassioned part in one of his tragedies, she
objected to the violence of his enthusiasm. "Mais, monsieur, on me
prendroit pour une possedee!"[74] "Eh, mademoiselle," replied the
philosophic bard, "il faut etre un possede pour reussir en aucun art."

The degree of enthusiasm, which makes the painter and poet set, what
to more idle, or more busy mortals, appears an imaginary value upon
their respective arts, supports the artist under the pressure of
disappointment and neglect, stimulates his exertions, and renders him
almost insensible to labour and fatigue. Military heroes, or those who
are "_insane with ambition_,"[75] endure all the real miseries of
life, and br