Creative Genius

[...[  creative literary genius does not principally show itself in discovering new ideas; that is rather the business of the philosopher: the grand work of literary genius is a work of synthesis and exposition, not analysis and discovery; its gifts lie in the faculty of being happily inspired by a certain intellectual and spiritual atmosphere, by a certain order of ideas, when it finds itself in them; of dealing divinely with these ideas, presenting them in the most effective and attractive combinations, —making beautiful works with them, in short.

Matthew Arnold, 'The Function of Criticism at the Present Time', in Essays by Matthew Arnold including Essays in Criticism, 1865 On Translating Homer (With F.W. Newman’s Reply) and Five Other Essays now for the first time collected (London: Oxford University Press, 1914): pp. 9-36 (p. 12).