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matter, but if they would be quiet, or indulge me for half an hour, I would either go on, or abandon the voyage, for that time.

It may, at first view, seem unimportant to employ much labor or time in arriving at a correct definition of this quality, but it will cease to appear so when viewed in This short respite was conceded without objection. I connection with the cultivation and proper direction of went below and examined the machinery, and discover- genius. It may be considered to be a fact of universal ed that it was a slight maladjustment of some of the application, that we are enabled to make a better use work. In a short period it was obviated. The boat of every faculty or power, of the nature of which we was again in motion: she continued to move on: all have a clear and correct conception. Assuming this to were incredulous: none seemed willing to trust their be so, which will scarcely be disputed, we may be alown senses. We left the fair city of New York: we pass-lowed, in the first place, to collate a few of the definied through the ever-changing scenery of the highlands: tions of genius which have been proposed at various we described the clustering houses of Albany: we reach-times, and to endeavor to extract from them all, a right the shores - and then, even then, when all seemed conception of this highest of God's gifts to man. achieved, I was the victim of disappointment. Imagination superceded the influence of fact. It was then doubted whether it could be done again, or if done, if it could be made of any value."

ACCOUNT OF THE FIRT TRIP.

GENIUS is derived from a verb which signifies to bear or to bring forth, which seems to involve in it the idea of originality of the power of conception. It has therefore been defined to be "the power or faculty which bears or brings forth or produces," which finds out, Letter from Robert Fulton to the American Citizen: discovers and invents; and then by a common figure of New York, August 10, 1808. speech, it has been applied to the individual possessing Sir-I arrived this afternoon at 4 o'clock, in the such a faculty. We are however here confined properly steamboat from Albany. As the success of my experi- to the quality itself. It will be our view, subsequently, ment gives me great hopes that such boats may be ren- to show that genius cannot be any single power or fadered of much importance to my country, to prevent er-culty, but the result of the union of many, when conroneous opinions and give some satisfaction to the friends sidered in its proper and highest sense. of useful improvement, you will have the goodness to publish the following statement of the facts:

I left New York on Monday, at 1 o'clock, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livington, at 1 o'clock on Tuesday-time, 24 hours-distance 110 miles. On Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's at 9 in the morning, and arrived at Albany at 5 in the afternoon-distance, 40 miles-time, 8 hours. The sum of this is 150 miles in 32 hours, equal to about 5 miles an hour.

On Thursday, at 9 o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at 5 in the evening. I started from thence at 7 and arrived at New York on Friday at 3 in the afternoon-time, 30 hours-space run through, 150 miles-equal to 5 miles an hour. Throughout the whole way, my going and returning, the wind was ahead, no advantage could be drawn from my sails; the whole has, therefore, been performed by the power of the steam engine.

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There are few persons who are not sensible of the influence of Genius, capable of appreciating its high and noble nature to some extent, and of perceiving and honoring its exhibition. This being the case, it is singular how few agree in defining in what it consists. We every where observe and feel its effects, but are, in most cases, ignorant of its nature and composition. There is, perhaps, scarcely any quality of which there might be arrayed more numerous and widely varying definitions and conceptions. This arises from various causes; some have mistaken its effects for genius itself, while others have fallen into errors of different kinds from an ignorance of the nature and operations of mind, and this latter class constitute by far the larger number.

In illustration of the definition just inentioned, Pope, in his preface to the Illiad, says: "Homer was the greater genius, Virgil, the greater artist," ascribing to the former the power of conceiving and originating, to the latter, that of moulding and finishing.

Horace, in one of his epistles, speaking of the different dispositions and traits of character observable among men brought up amid the same circumstances, remarks:

"Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum,
Naturæ deus humanæ mortalis in anum-
Quodque caput, vultu mutabilis, albus et ator."
"But whence these various inclinations rose,
The God of human nature only knows,
That mystic Genius which our actions guides,
Attends our stars and o'er our lives presides;
Whose power appears propitious or malign,
Stamp'd on each face and varied through each line."
FRANCIS.

In these verses, he, in common with other writers of the same age, evidently understands this term in its lowest signification, as a mere natural inclination or

bent.

A still different idea of genius is entertained by Fielding, who conceives it to be " that power or rather those powers of the mind which are capable of penetrating into all things within our reach and knowledge, and of distinguishing their essential differences." With him it is not a mere natural tendency or inclination or innate power of invention, but the result of the appropriate action of the highest mental faculties in a state of refined cultivation.

Dr. Blair, again, in his lectures on rhetoric, has fallen in with the more general definition of this word. He says it "always imports something inventive or creative, which does not rest in mere sensibility to beauty when it is perceived, but which can moreover produce new beauties and exhibit them in such a manner as strongly to impress the minds of others." It will be

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readily perceived that he is here defining genius by one of its effects which is already well known and generally appreciated. Conscious of the necessity of further explaining himself, he says in another place, "Taste consists in the power of judging, genius in the power of executing." "Genius cannot be found without taste," Genius, however, in a poet or orator may sometimes exist in a higher degree than taste; that is, genius may be bold and strong, when taste is neither very delicate nor very correct. This is often the case in the infancy of arts, a period when genius frequently exerts itself with great vigor and executes with great warmth, while taste, which requires experience and improves by slow degrees, hath not as yet attained to its full growth. Homer and Shakespeare are proofs of what I now assert."

Aside from the questionable assertion of genius consisting in the power of executing, the rest is a mere description of the operation of this quality without at all clearing up the mist which obscures its nature.

We might extend quotations from many authors who have used this term advisedly in many very dissimilar senses. It is of course like other words, frequently employed loosely and generally to express either some peculiarity of mental character, or some extraordinary degree of mental endowment. Before attempting to reconcile these opinions it may be well to disabuse our minds of the popular error of mistaking eccentricity for genius.

Eccentricity is neither incompatible with nor by any means an invariable accompaniment of a great mind. This will be clear from the definition which we have given of it. Indeed its co-existence with great mental endowments is but a sad and humbling instance of the imperfection of every thing human. The conditions of our existence are such, that we rarely meet with any thing in this life which has not stamped upon it some traces of human depravity and sinfulness.

The distinction between eccentricity and genius (used in its true signification) will be more clearly perceived from a concise definition of the latter, which we will hazard, though with hesitation, for reasons implied in the previous remarks upon the diversity of existing opinions in relation to this quality.

The mind consists of several distinct faculties or powers. It rarely happens, and for wise and obvious reasons, that all of these are equally developed in an eminent degree. There is a necessity in the nature of things that each particular department of knowledge and civilization should receive progressive impulses from the pre-eminent development in particular minds of some individual power or class of powers. Genius, then, as it is commonly met with and exhibited, we conceive, with due deference, to be the result of the pre-eminent development of one or more of the intellectual powers of the mind influenced by and harmonizing in its or their action with, all the other intellectual, moral and impulsive powers of the same What is eccentricity? This word means, literally, mind. The rare existence of this pre-eminent deveout of the centre; that is, when applied to mental lopement, combined with this harmony, accounts for operations, irregular, unbalanced, singular or inconsis- the comparatively few instances of high and refined getent. Do any of these elements necessarily or properly nius which we find in the pages of history or meet with enter into the composition of Genius? Does a mind in our personal experience. A beautiful writer who without compass to direct its movements excel in any coincides, in some measure, with this idea of genius, particular, one under the government and direction of appears to have fallen into an error which will perhaps assist in illustrating this definition. He selects as a dea sound judgment? A ship in the same situation, may possibly, by the force of the current and the winds, scription of this quality, the well-known and glowing come in sight of some hitherto unknown land, but runs lines of Shakespeare, which cannot be too often tranthe imminent risk of being either previously cast away or of being dashed in pieces upon the coast of the new and unknown country to which it has been accidentally directed. The same fate would naturally, and most frequently does, attend in some shape, a mind thus imperfectly constituted. Dr. Blair, who is excellent authority upon subjects of this kind, whenever they involve the discussion of no abstract question, says in the passage above quoted, that genius cannot be found without taste, and this remark is derived from his own reading and personal experience, and therefore full reliance may be placed in its truth. Now taste results from a sensibility to that which is beautiful, enlightened and directed by a sound judgment and correct perceptions. It is evident then that the existence of genius being incompatible with the absence of taste, it cannot be sy-tual effort. The latter is characterized by calmness and nonymous with eccentricity, the predominating character of which latter is the absence of a controlling judgment and correct perceptions.*

* It will be observed that the peculiarities of eccentricity thus considered, have been supposed to consist of intellectual deficiencies. There are others who have been more uncharitable or severe. But we are not disposed to coincide with the opinion of Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, although high authority, who having

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The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth

The form of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name."

We apprehend the author himself intended to do nothing more here, than to describe the fiery and energetic action of the poets imagination, as all that he says is compatible with the action of this faculty alone. There is in the process described by Shakespeare in these verses, necessarily involved, no great intellectual exertion. Indeed the enthusiastic and impetuous workings of the mind of the poet as here described, seem rather to forbid the idea of the existence of any high intellec

steadiness, and the great master, not of the heart only, but of the whole mind, knew too well how to paint each of its lineaments, to confuse the picture by any mistake of this kind. He here pourtrays beautifully denounced Donsterswivel as a scoundrel,' and being remonstrated with, for the application of so severe a term to a person who was only an eccentric genius,' causticly replied, in a muttering tone, 'pretty much the same in the Greek.'

the action of excited and enthusiastic feeling, with, at the most, the moderate and common exercise of an intellectual faculty which enabled the poet to realize or pourtray in words, the creations of his high-wrought fancy.

It was imagination then only, and not the higher qualities of genius which he intended to illustrate. We have known many instances of the possession of the most luxuriant imagination combined with a power of copious and happy expression, and yet they could not be said to evidence the possession of genius, because they lacked that harmony of action in the mental constitution, that co-existence of discriminating judgment, right perceptions of the relations of physical objects, and a correct appreciation of moral relations, all of which seem necessary to constitute what can properly be styled genius. It is, in fact, and in the fewest words, the perfection of mental action in some particular direction and towards some particular and constant end. To use a somewhat homely illustration, minds differ only in the relative size of the wheels that compose the machine; but if these wheels do not bear a certain relation to each other in size, if one or more be too large, the machine cannot work perfectly or harmoniously. This defect is most frequently observed in the faculty usually denominated the " imagination," or that which feels and appreciates the beautiful. How often is the delicately wrought mental machine of the sensitive poet unhinged by the undue development of this power, or if his misfortune extend not so far, how frequently is our compassion, if not our laughter, excited by the incongruous creations of his disordered and unregulated fancy. This cannot be GENIUS.

different from the case in which no truly inventive power, no sublime creations of the imagination subdued and moulded by an enlightened judgment, exist.

Leibnits too, under a hasty judgment, might be excluded from the distinction which belongs to genius, on account of one unfortunate trait in his character, which has, it is true, much diminished the lustre of his name, and detracted from the value of his labors.*

Yet after all, each one can better feel than express what genius is, and each individual who is so happy as to possess it, will not fail quickly to be conscious of his high distinction. This quality is, in this respect, analagous in some degree to poetry. What is poetry? How difficult a question to answer, and how many different answers have been given to it; and yet those who have refined tastes and correct reflecting powers, can easily recognise and appreciate it. No rules or defini. tions can be invented within whose prescribed limits we can bring it. It was a just and important remark of Lord Byron, that every poet must be his own Aristotle, and thus it is with genius.

It will be perceived that the definition of genius which we have hazarded, does not fail to recognise, but distinctly implies, a natural inventive or creative power. The pre-eminent development of any one or more of the mental faculties can scarcely be produced by cultivation, because we lack the will or power of so exercising them as to make it or them outstrip the others. There must be, therefore, a natural and original inequality of development. It is as evident and well established a fact in mental philosophy, that the very large development of any faculty is followed by strong and constant manifestations, directing all its energies in its own particular sphere, and continually modelling and

Dr. Johnson, in his life of Cowley, gives a definition of this quality which but for one word, and that in-remodelling all its appropriate objects of exercise. volving in our estimation, serious error, would coincide in substance with the one above given. He says, "the true genius is a mind of large powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great painter of the present age, had the first fondness for his art excited by the perusal of Richardson." The single term "accidentally" involves the whole difference between two systems of mental philosophy, and therefore this would not be the proper occasion to criticise its use in this passage. But, with all due deference to the shade of its great author, we would venture to question whether the perusal of Richardson or any other work, however remarkable, could have roused into action those great powers of design and execution which Sir Joshua displayed, if they had not received from the hand of nature, an unusual or superior development.

These are the two principal elements contended for by various writers, as constituents of genius, and they are both, as we conceive, comprehended in our definiwho have possessed it, is an unnecessary, and in some tion. To give examples of genius, to cite individuals degree, unpleasant task. To exclude some who have others whose claims to this distinction have not been generally been considered to possess it, and to include this task, would but excite difference of opinion withcommonly recognized, as might happen by undertaking out any beneficial effects. But there is one case which may be safely cited, and I do it the more readily because it is one not generally known and coming from a country with which we are but little acquainted.

This harmony in the mental constitution of which we have spoken, may be more or less perfect and complete, and we would not confine the possession of genius to that fortunate and very limited number of individuals who possess it in its highest degree and retain it under all circumstances. If so, we would perhaps fall into the dilemma of proscribing the illustrious Shakespeare himself, who sometimes led away by the bad taste of his age, has indulged in freaks of the imagination and vagaries and quips which no refined mind can now read without regret and pain. But this is very

PETER HORBERG, the Swedish painter, born in 1746, is the instance of unaided and almost unfriended genius alluded to. He was by birth, one of the humblest peasants of his poor country; obliged from childhood through a good portion of his life to obtain a scanty living by rural labor, and indulging the inestimable promptness of his genius during many years, only in

* "Leibnits—whose genius we cannot too much admire—Leibnits was himself a disciple of Descartes ; a disciple, it is true, who surpassed his master, but who unfortunately led away by universal curiosity or passion for all kinds of glory and the distractions of political life, has only thrown out some admirable views, without any clear and definite system.”—M. Cousin's Introd. to Analyses of Kant's Works.

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the few leisure hours which he could snatch from toil.riority over common minds, he has neglected to acquire The education which the humble means of his parent those necessary items of information which alone can could afford him, was of course extremely limited, and secure success in the world at large, and is too apt to the small attainments of his father, who was his first expect the latter to await, as a matter of course, the and principal teacher, could not, even with a parent's mere exhibition of his exalted mental endowments. zeal, do much for his son. But this son possessed that Or, perhaps, the same result may arise from the excluwithin his own mind, which did not, it is true, make sive devotion of all the powers of his mind to the parup for instruction, but enabled him to turn what he re-ticular sphere of his genius: the absorption, as it were, ceived to its utmost account, and prompted him unceǝs- of every idea into the magic circle which it throws ingly to further and higher acquirements. While em- around it. Both of these causes are equally insufficient ployed as a shepherd boy, he filled up his leisure hours in palliation of their unfortunate effects. They are no with copying from memory, on birch bark, the rude necessary, though it may be, frequent accompaniments wood-cuts he had cursorily seen in the almanacks and of genius. They point to a neglected or partial educasmall catechisms then used in Sweden; and afterwards tion as their ultimate cause, and impose with fearful carved in soft wood with his knife, the altar-pieces and certainty the responsibility of their consequences upon other ornaments of the parish church. Entirely igno- the authors of, and accessaries to, this neglect or ignorant of the nature and composition of oil colors, he dis-rance. covered for himself the method of using ochre, burnt clay, chalk and charcoal practised by painters in crayons. In this humble way he proceeded for several years, till he arrived at the age of sixteen, when, by an accident, he was transferred to one of the principal towns of Sweden. His progress in his art was, of course, slow, unaided by instruction of any value, and destitute of means of studying the master-pieces of his own or other countries. But the enthusiasm of his genius sustained him amid all the difficulties of his situation, and untiring application and study enabled him, at an early period, to produce pieces of superior excellence, which decorated some of the principal churches of Sweden.

He possessed an ardent thirst for knowledge, and his mind required continual nourishment. During the necessary intervals of rest from the mechanical prosecution of his art, he studied and mastered its theory, obtained an education, though not classical nor highly refined, yet immeasurably above that common to his rank in life. His success in his profession was such as to enable him in his old age to retire from active employment and to engage himself in the writing an account of his life, published after his death and upon which a Swedish writer makes this observation, that it was "a work remarkable in many respects, and the publication of which is a valuable acquisition to the literature of Sweden."

The other truth is that the possession of genius will not compensate for the want of study and diligent application. The almost only defect in the paintings of Horberg resulted from his having been deprived of the advantages of one kind of study, the mode of finishing his works. This he could not learn by himself or from inferior masters; but all his excellencies were the result of the inspirations of his genius, trained and directed by long and intense study.

I am aware that this latter inference is directly opposed to the prevailing opinion of the present day. It is generally supposed that the possession of genius dispenses with the necessity of study, and by an absurd inference, that the habit of study proves the absence of this quality. No opinion can be more erroneous or highly noxious to the progress and improvement of the young particularly. The highest and most favorable development of any mental faculty cannot, aside from study and reading, make its possessor acquainted with the state and condition of the particular department of knowledge to which its tendencies direct him. By a neglect of study, if his mind does not fall into an indolent and lethargic habit, he can, at best, like the young Ferguson, as he lay watching the stars, but vainly busy himself in working out inventions and discoveries which have ceased to be new, and thus but tread again the path which has already been discovered and threaded, perWe have given no details of the life of this remarka-haps centuries before. And this, too, is the brightest ble man, nor of the character of his works. Suffice it view of the case. The most probable fate that awaits a to say, that the latter were characterized by vividness and grandness of conception, combined with accuracy of detail, and deficient only in finish arising from his want of early instruction.

mind that despises study and application, is incurable indolence and lethargy. The most brilliant intellect or imagination, if left to riot on itself, will soon fail in furnishing its necessary and appropriate nourishment, and Two facts of some importance, especially to young will go out in darkness and disgrace. Let not then the men, may be deduced from the history of Horberg. The diligent student be scoffed at or despised. For why first is, that genius is not necessarily unfortunate: that should he? If possessed of genius, he can employ it it can, united with the qualities of perseverance and to ten-fold advantage when enriched with the labors of industry, attain success as easily and surely as less kindred spirits that have preceded it, and nourished highly gifted individuals. The opinion so commonly with the fruits of by-gone ages. Despised? Rather let entertained, that the possession of genius is synonymous such an one, if his efforts be directed to laudable ends, with misfortune, is partly founded in truth, arising from be respected and praised, for he is using the high pow. the faults and imperfections of the mind that possesses it. ers which his Creator has bestowed upon him, in their The individual thus highly endowed, generally, from an legitimate manner. Rather let those who laugh at the imperfect or neglected education, has grown up in igno- diligent and retiring student, be despised for their ignorance of the world and its ways. Perhaps early imbued by rance, their thoughtlessness, their heartlessness; heartsome partial friend, with an exaggerated idea of his supe-lessness that would attempt, by their unmeaning scoffs

to divert his mind from its improvement, and drive him to desperation and ruin. And here, in connection with the illustration of genius afforded by the painter Horberg, let us correct an error very commonly entertained upon this subject, and which may also serve as an ap. propriate introduction to the consideration of the manifestation and effects of this quality.

It is supposed by many that we have a certain indication of the possession of genius in a reckless, fearless, and wild cast of mind. The presence of genius does, in its turn, invest the mind with a bold and manly character; but the boldest and manliest warriors are often the most disciplined and circumspect. The qualities of manliness and boldness are by no means inconsistent with prudence and a systematic line of conduct, but are rather their proper and necessary concomitants. Every graduate of an academy or college will recollect how often the palm of genius was awarded by his youthful companions to the reckless, ill-regulated and careless, but perhaps amiable student, while his course in after life, when compared with that of many others, who had at once been stamped as his inferiors, plainly evinced the error of the award. These views, though often before entertained, were lately accidentally suggested while reading in a review, an article on the History of the Cossacks, from which the following extract is taken: "Savage grandeur of mind was a prominent feature in their character, associated with an absolute contempt for riches, produced, no doubt, by the precariousness of their existence, which they were daily liable to be called upon to risk for their freedom. The following is an instance of their wild humor, an accompaniment, it is said, of true genius. The people of Ukrain can still remember the time when a Cossack, wishing to enjoy a frolic at a fair, would hire singers, go round with them to every shop, entertaining whomsoever he met, and scattering money amongst the crowd, in order to cause a scuffle. Then, to complete the jest, he would seat himself, in his rich crimson dress, upon a cask of tar, to show his contempt for riches, and finally put on his old sheepskin and return gaily home."

Now, is this an accompaniment or evidence of true genius, as the reviewer seems to suppose, or rather, is it not a mistake which has arisen from two causes, ve

ry easily traced: the one, the error already considered, of confounding eccentricity with genius; and the other, that in early times and new countries, when this quality

was, for reasons afterwards mentioned, more common, the imperfect cultivation of manners and rude state of education, let the mind endowed with the highest gifts, run wild and betray its weakness, in such irregularities, which after all was only a mode of manifesting the peculiar traits or idiosyncracies of the nation.

mer has as a necessary element, the pre-eminent develop. ment of one or more of the intellectual powers. The man possessing common sense is distinguished for no peculiar traits of character, no constant and controlling tendency in his mental operations, while the man of genius is ever directing all his efforts and thoughts into the channel marked out by his predominating faculty. Moderate powers are compatible with the possession of common sense, but genius must result from large mental developments. This we conceive to be the distinction which exists between these two qualities.

The power and effects of genius are in their charac. ter, such as might be expected to attend so noble and refined a quality. It being itself the result of harmony and energy in the mental system, its influence is alike harmonious and powerful. Not always immediately discovered or appreciated, yet armed with the irresistible power of truth, it penetrates sooner or later, the dullest and most impermeable mind and thrills it into ecstasy and delight. It is in its holiest form, both true and beautiful, and may comprehend the influence of both these qualities, so vividly and simply painted by the artless Spencer in his "Fairy Queene,"

"Oh how can beautie maister the most strong,
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong."

It is not ascribing too much to this quality of mind, to
say that before it, the boldest and strongest grow weak,
and the heart of the villain quails. Its appropriate
weapon is truth and its atmosphere is freedom and light.
Will it be said that we meet on every side instances of

prostituted genius, when this mighty gift is used for the worst and most abandoned purposes. Thus it is with every thing which man possesses. It is his nature to abuse and degrade the noblest as well as the meanest of his endowments. Yet this does not render what we have said less true, nor change the nature and action of genius in the least. It but loses much of its native power when it breathes the noxious air of passion and vice. A mind originally possessed of this quality, even when in ruins, is still an object of awe and wonder. How much more so must it be in all its primitive purity and nobleness! It throws around every thing within its sphere, an air and tone of dignity and refinement; it brings into its service every object of observation and makes it the medium of its own grand conceptions. In its own dignity to every subject it chooses to handle: it can give weight to insignificance, and make even an amorous ditty, the vehicle of awful truths and of useful lessons."*

the words of an elegant author-" Genius communicates

is no part of its nature. Its attributes are strength, Genius stamps its lines deep and firm. Evanescence But the advocates of this idea of genius may say we enthusiastic energy and undying immortality. Its aim are hedging in genius on every side, so as at last to make is certain, its force irresistible and its traces indelible. it nothing more or less than common sense. Highly as Though often by the uncultivated mind not at once felt we value this latter quality, and preferable as it may be or appreciated, it fails not sooner or later to exercise in many situations and under many circumstances, to its appropriate influence, which slowly imbibed, sinks genius itself, it must still yield a precedence to the lat-deeper and makes a more lasting impression. ter, and is essentially different from it. Common sense may accompany genius, but genius is not comprehended in common sense. The latter is the result of a nice and accurate balance of the mental faculties, while the for

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picture of Raphael, a Greek statue, a play of Shakespeare, appears insignificant to the unpractised eye: and not till after long and patient and intense examination do

* Eustace's Italy.

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