ABSTRACT
Mrs. Morley, under all the sufferings of an indignant spirit, resisted the pressure of pecuniary distress, with a degree of fortitude for which a pre-judging world allowed her little credit. But she found that, not only the consolations of life depended on the possession of fortune’s favours, but that even the gratifying shew of outward respect faded into a mere shadow, as the storm of adversity thickened round her. She had employed her pen, till her health was visibly declining;21 she had denied herself the comforts of existence, till existence itself was scarcely to be valued. All that her honourable, her incessant industry could procure, was insufficient for the purposes of attaining a permanent independence;22 and she was at length so deeply involved, so menaced with destruction, that nothing but an effort of despair could save her. She found by painful experience, that few among the illiterate and vulgar will extend their patronage to mental worth; that the reward which the aristocracy of wealth bestows is very rarely munificent; though self-gratification is purchased at a prodigal expence, and while genius lingers in adversity, licentious pleasure revels in all the boundless luxuries of fortune.
