"The period depends sometimes upon a fortunate accident encouraging its exertion, sometimes upon a variety of concurring causes stimulating its ardor, and sometimes upon that natural effervescence of mind (if we may thus express it) by which it bursts forth with irresistible energy, at different ages, in different persons, not only without any foreign aid, but in opposition to every obstacle that arises in its way."
An Essay on Original Genius
2 entries in ESTC (1767).<br>
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Text from William Duff, <u>An Essay on Original Genius; and its Various Modes of Exertion in Philosophy and the Fine Arts, Particularly in Poetry</u> (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1767). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T58836a">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;