It is a remarkable circumstance in the studies of men of genius, that previous to composition they have often awakened their imagination by the imagination of their favourite masters.

By touching a magnet, they become a magnet.

A circumstance has been, recorded of GRAY, by Mr.Mathias, "as worthy of all acceptation among the higher votaries of the divine art, when they are assured that Mr.Gray never sate down to compose any poetry without previously, and for a considerable time, reading the works of Spenser." But the circumstance was not unusual with Malherbe, Corneille, and Racine; and the most fervid verses of Homer, and the most tender of Euripides, were often repeated by Milton.

Even antiquity exhibits the same exciting intercourse of the mind of genius.

Cicero informs us how his eloquence caught inspiration from a constant study of the Latin and Grecian poetry; and it has been recorded of Pompey, who was great even in his youth, that he never undertook any considerable enterprise without animating his genius by having read to him the character of Achilles in the first _Iliad_; although he acknowledged that the enthusiasm he caught came rather from the poet than the hero.