How to be immodest

'How easily and cleverly I do write just now!  I am really pleased with myself; words come skipping to me like lambs upon Moffat Hill; and I turn my periods smoothly and imperceptibly like a skilful wheelwright turning tops in a turning-loom.  There's fancy!  There's simile!  In short, I am at present a genius: in that does my opulence consist, and not in base metal'

 

- From the journal of diarist James Boswell, 9 February 1763