§ 49. _Of the faculties of the mind that constitute Genius_
We say of certain products of which we expect that they should at least in part appear as beautiful art, they are without _spirit_[82]; although we find nothing to blame in them on the score of taste. A poem may be very neat and elegant, but without spirit. A history may be exact and well arranged, but without spirit. A festal discourse may be solid and at the same time elaborate, but without spirit. Conversation is often not devoid of entertainment, but yet without spirit: even of a woman we say that she is pretty, an agreeable talker, and courteous, but without spirit. What then do we mean by spirit?
_Spirit_, in an aesthetical sense, is the name given to the animating principle of the mind. But that whereby this principle animates the soul, the material which it applies to that [purpose], is that which puts the mental powers purposively into swing, _i.e._ into such a play as maintains itself and strengthens the [mental] powers in their exercise.
Now I maintain that this principle is no other than the faculty of presenting _aesthetical Ideas_. And by an aesthetical Idea I understand that representation of the Imagination which occasions much thought, without, however, any definite thought, _i.e._ any _concept_, being capable of being adequate to it; it consequently cannot be completely compassed and made intelligible by language.--We easily see that it is the counterpart (pendant) of a _rational Idea_, which conversely is a concept to which no _intuition_ (or representation of the Imagination) can be adequate.
The Imagination (as a productive faculty of cognition) is very powerful in creating another nature, as it were, out of the material that actual nature gives it. We entertain ourselves with it when experience proves too commonplace, and by it we remould experience, always indeed in accordance with analogical laws, but yet also in accordance with principles which occupy a higher place in Reason (laws too which are just as natural to us as those by which Understanding comprehends empirical nature). Thus we feel our freedom from the law of association (which attaches to the empirical employment of Imagination), so that the material which we borrow from nature in accordance with this law can be worked up into something different which surpasses nature.