ABSTRACT
The man of genius, struggling with adverse circumstances, is one of the most affecting subjects which can be presented to the imagination. We see him first in remote and humble life, a delicate and ingenuous child, moved to sorrow by the slightest chiding, and pining over the recollection of the most trivial neglect; beloved, however, by his parents with a degree of solicitude beyond the common affection which they feel for their other children, persons of virtuous dispositions, their best efforts are employed to give him an education that may fit him for some department of business where hard labour is not required; and he is sent to a school among his superiors in fortune, where his diffidence is regarded as sullenness, and his thoughtfulness as stupidity. His progress is slow; and he retires from this scene without leaving any favourable impression. His next appearance is either in the office of a lawyer, or the shop of an apothecary, or perhaps in the counting-house of a merchant. The bent of his mind lies not to his business; and his parents, unable to discriminate the stirrings of awakening genius from discontent, become anxious respecting him; and, ascribing the change in his character to the profitless course of his reading, embitter the little leisure that he can devote to study, by reproaching him with misspending his time. By and by he acquires confidence in himself, and, in defiance of the anger of his friends, ventures before the public as an author. He has no literary associate to point out the indications of talent scattered through his first imperfect essays, and his publication consequently incurs contempt. Conscious, however, of possessing within himself the springs of a force not yet excited, and instructed by his first failure, he perseveres on towards the goal in view, and appears, at length, a second time with a little more success. Thus, step by step, unknown, uncheered, unpatronised, he gradually establishes a name; but his 434privations, his mortifications, his anxieties, and his sufferings, unparticipated and concealed, have, in the mean time, undermined his constitution, and he dies. He is then missed by the public, his works become sought after, the trade take up the question of his merits, and, about a century after his decease, the public assign to him a place among the ornaments of his country.
