Page:A note on Charlotte Brontë (IA note00swinoncharlottebrich).pdf/21

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CHARLOTTE BRONTË.
7

genius from mere intellect as by a great gulf fixed; the quality of the latter, we may say, is constructive, the property of the former is creative. Adam Bede, for instance, or even Tito Melema, is an example of construction—and the latter is one of the finest in literature;. Edward Rochester and Paul Emanuel are creations. And the inevitable test or touchstone of this indefinable difference is the immediate and enduring impression set at once and engraved for ever on the simplest or the subtlest mind of the most careless or the most careful student. In every work of pure genius we feel while it is yet before us—and if we cease for a little to feel when out of sight of it for awhile, we surely feel afresh each time our sight of it is renewed—the sense