Re-creative

The hiſtorian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it to poſterity; but the antiquarian brings his treaſures from remote ages, and preſents them to this: he examines forgotten repoſitories, calls things back into exiſtence, which are paſt; counteracts the efforts of time, and of death; poſſeſſes ſomething like a re-creative power; collects the duſt of departed matter, moulds it into its preſtine ſtate, exhibits the figure to view, and ſtamps it with a kind of immortality.

Mutely each re-creative lay outpour’d / Its own revealings; / Youth, manhood, age, were momently restored, / With all their feelings.

One should always be careful, of course, not to confuse the creative artist with the re-creative one (as [Giuseppe] Verdi once remarked, that is the way to the abyss).