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CHAPTER X . “ He had catched a great cold , had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed . ” — FULLER . Young Ladislaw did not pay that visit to which Mr . Brooke had invited him , and only six days afterwards Mr . Casaubon mentioned that his young relative had started for the Continent , seeming by this cold vagueness to waive inquiry . Indeed , Will had declined to fix on any more precise destination than the entire area of Europe . Genius , he held , is necessarily intolerant of fetters : on the one hand it must have the utmost play for its spontaneity ; on the other , it may confidently await those messages from the universe which summon it to its peculiar work , only placing itself in an attitude of receptivity towards all sublime chances . The attitudes of receptivity are various , and Will had sincerely tried many of them . He was not excessively fond of wine , but he had several times taken too much , simply as an experiment in that form of ecstasy ; he had fasted till he was faint , and then supped on lobster ; he had made himself ill with doses of opium . Nothing greatly original had resulted from these measures ; and the effects of the opium had convinced him that there was an entire dissimilarity between his constitution and De Quincey’s . The superadded circumstance which would evolve the genius had not yet come ; the universe had not yet beckoned . Even Caesar’s fortune at one time was but a grand presentiment . We know what a masquerade all development is , and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos . In fact , the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities . Will saw clearly enough the pitiable instances of long incubation producing no chick , and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon , whose plodding application , rows of note - books , and small taper of learned theory exploring the tossed ruins of the world , seemed to enforce a moral entirely encouraging to Will’s generous reliance on the intentions of the universe with regard to himself . He held that reliance to be a mark of genius ; and certainly it is no mark to the contrary ; genius consisting neither in self - conceit nor in humility , but in a power to make or do , not anything in general , but something in particular . Let him start for the Continent , then , without our pronouncing on his future . Among all forms of mistake , prophecy is the most gratuitous . But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr . Casaubon than to his young cousin . If to Dorothea Mr . Casaubon had been the mere occasion which had set alight the fine inflammable material of her youthful illusions , does it follow that he was fairly represented in the minds of those less impassioned personages who have hitherto delivered their judgments concerning him ? I protest against any absolute conclusion , any prejudice derived from Mrs . Cadwallader’s contempt for a neighboring clergyman’s alleged greatness of soul , or Sir James Chettam’s poor opinion of his rival’s legs , — from Mr . Brooke’s failure to elicit a companion’s ideas , or from Celia’s criticism of a middle - aged scholar’s personal appearance .
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