It is not infrequent to find a really great mind sunk in
apathy for want of a compelling thought, a dominant idea, a
commensurate ambition. Then something rouses such a mind, and
at the touch of a magic wand its slumber is broken. Some hint
drops like a seed into its prepared soil, and the mind becomes
so renewed and vitalized that henceforth it scarcely seems the
same. This was precisely the history of Gibbon’s intellect.
The moment when his imaginative sympathy was touched with the
thought of the past glory and present degradation of Rome, was
the moment that freed all the latent powers of his genius, as
ice is thawed by the sudden burst of summer warmth. And in
that moment, also, his years of wide and irregular study bore
fruit.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”
(134)
=Arousing an Undutiful Son=--See WORSHIPER, A MOTHER.
=Arrested Development=--See RETARDATION.
=Arriving=--See AMBITION.
=Art=--See HOME VALUES; PICTURE, RECORD PRICE FOR; REALISM.
=Art, Age in=--See ENDURING ART.
=Art as a Transformer=--See BEAUTIFUL, INFLUENCE OF THE.