"Imitation indeed, of every kind, except that of nature, has a tendency to cramp the inventive powers of the mind, which, if indulged in their excursions, might discover new mines of intellectual ore, that lie hid only from those who are incapable or unwilling to dive into the recesses in which it lies buried."
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;