To be without any received canons of taste is good for the few who can create, but bad for the many who can only imitate and judge.

Great and active minds cannot remain at rest.

In a cultivated age they are too often contented to move on in the beaten path.

But where no path exists they will make one.

Thus the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Divine Comedy, appeared in dark and half barbarous times: and thus of the few original works which have been produced in more polished ages we owe a large proportion to men in low stations and of uninformed minds.