AN ESSA Y ON GENIU S. BY ALEXANDER GERARD, D. D. PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN KING'S COLLEGE, Quid illa vis, quæ tandem eft, quæ inveftigat occulta, quæ Cic. Quæft. Tufc. lib. i. LONDON: Printed for W. STRAHAN; T. CADELL in the Strand; and W. CREECH at Edinburgh. MDCCLXXIV. ADVERTISEMENT. HE Author of the following Effay TH Thad occafion, had occafion, in writing on Tafte, to confider its connexion with Genius. The attention which he bestowed on this latter faculty, in that one point of view, convinced him, that its Nature and its Principles admitted and required a fuller investigation than had ever been attempted, and determined him to enter on that investigation immediately after finishing his former work. Accordingly his plan was formed, the first part compofed, and some progress made in the fecond part, fo long ago as the year 1758. He was then in an office which favoured enquiries of this nature; his continuance in it would have afforded him the opportunity of compleating the defign A 2 |