William Beloe

“ I transcribe from memory these few particulars concerning him, and I may perhaps hereafter increase the catalogue.
He was really a sad dog, but most delightfully amusing, facetious, witty, well-informed, and with much various, though not profound learning.
He was sometimes so intolerably sarcastic, and more particularly at the expence of his friends in the city, that the wonder is, how he could so long continue in their good graces. He never put any restraint upon himself, when in company, on the other side of Temple-bar, but indulged in all the satire of his wit, at the citizen’s expence. ”

“ Now, then, alas! the moment is come, when we are to take a final leave of our illustrious friend.—Whatever were his errors, his failings, and his infirmities, he was, as far as talent, learning, and intellectual distinction is concerned, a great man. His loss will ever be deplored by those who intimately knew him; and the tenderest regret will, as long as life shall endure, be everlastingly excited, when memory brings to the view of him who writes this narrative, the instructive, interesting, and pleasing hours spent in his society. ”

“ Born of highly respectable connections, he was educated at a public school, where his talents soon inspired respect, and his facetiousness and wit, rendered him exceedingly popular. This spirit never forsook him through life, for he invariably continued to animate the society of which he was a part, by incessant sallies of cheerfulness, good humour, and the very best sort of conversation. His talents, however, were of a still higher order, and perhaps, there was no situation within the scope of his ambition, which he was not qualified to fill with dignity, and to the public advantage. ”

“ But as we were saying, he proceeded to Lisbon, where he would have died a victim to the want of proper attention and attendance, but that the incidental recommendation of a friend, procured for him hospitality of no ordinary kind or extent. All was, however, unavailing, and he returned without benefit. He did not survive a great while afterwards, but to the last, retained his native sweetness of temper, unruffled by sufferings, and his elegance of taste and powers of intellect, unclouded and undiminished. Peace to his ashes. A purer spirit has not heaven. ”

“ When accident first introduced our Sexagenarian to H. M. W. she was young and lovely, ingenuous and innocent. By the proper exercise of her talents, she might have been an ornament to society, and useful to the world. Her decline of life might have tranquilly been passed under the shadow of her own vine, honoured and beloved. If she exists, she can have no other reflections but those which must be truly mortifying. ”

“ The powers of the soul languish, and are depressed, from the narrowness of the sphere in which they have yet moved, the master strings of the heart [334] are yet untouched, the higher, stronger passions of the breast are to be rouzed before the keenness of expectation can be gratified. The charms of friendship, the delicate and intoxicating sensations which attend the first delicious emotions of the tender passion, rush on the imagination with violence, to which even the energy of youthful ambition is feeble and impotent in comparison. ”

“ A representation was made by my master, that he saw in me, indications of qualities and talents which pointed to some better station, than that of a village apothecary, and he recommended the sphere of my education to be enlarged; that I should be removed to a great school, and finally to the university. Whether I should have been more useful to the world, or intrinsically more happy in myself, if the humbler path had been pursued which was first chalked out for me, He only knows from whom no secrets are hid. ”

“ He did indeed attain, and by force of merit only, the means of passing through life, with great respect and honour, in possession of all its comforts, and with not a few of its best advantages. These he enjoyed to the fullest extent, participating in them, with no very limited circle of old and long-tried friends. What has been said of his claims to worldly distinctions, is equally applicable to his mental endowments. His learning and his talents were equal to any undertaking. He would have been a good historian, if he had directed his mind to that branch of learning. ”

“ A momentary bliss is imparted by the recollection. Ah! why should they return no more! Then it was, that the heart, untainted by vice, and uncorrupted by the world, expanded itself to the impression of nature’s beauties; when the mind, full of hope and ardour, thirsting for improvement, which was every day obtained, indulged in lovely golden dreams of fancy, and constructed imaginary castles, with all the accompaniments of Sylph and Fairy creation. ”

“ The distress is more complicated and hopeless from its nature than any other, and the pangs of a thousand discordant passions are crouded and concentrated into that terrible moment which discovers infidelity, where the confiding heart had fondly rested all its prospects of happiness. Under other strokes of calamity the soul gains force and dignity from the greatness of unmerited misfortunes, and rouses every latent power to combat against evil fate. ”

“ Her captivating manners, her high birth, her connections, her talents, necessarily drew a crowd of young men about her, for many of whom, in their turns, she suffered love; but the flame was transitory in its effects, nor did she ever seriously entangle herself in an engagement which had marriage for its object, except with one individual, as unlike herself, in every possible particular, as the imagination can conceive.
Her playfulness and most bewitching familiarity often, however, were the cause of her entangling others. ”

“ He was an amiable and unoffending man, and there were many families, of which that of the Sexagenarian was one, in which he was constantly received with hospitality and kindness. He repaid the welcome he found, by his lively conversation, and abundance of anecdotes. Poor fellow! it is to be feared, that in the decline of life, when his powers of mind were too enfeebled to communicate the usual pabulum of intelligence to his employers, and when his bodily powers became too infirm to go in quest of it, that he had to endure many and serious privations. ”

“ Can it be supposed, that one so favoured by a concurrence of fortunate events, should treat with neglect those to whose interposition and recommendation, he immediately owed his greatness? Can it be supposed, that he was detested by his dependants, for the most unrestrained insolence and intolerable arrogance? Can it be believed, that the friends and play-mates of his boyish days, equals to him in ability, far, very far superior in merit, should be contumeliously kept at an awful distance, sometimes oppressed with an assumed condescension, at others disgusted at unconcealed haughtiness? ”

“ Such are those which unexpected treachery, from that quarter where the soul had gathered up its best and tenderest hope, must call forth, and few are the hearts, round the ruggedness of whose nature so little of the softer feelings are entwined, as not to feel the full keenness of that wound which the tearing of the ties of love inflicts, though its firmness had been inaccessible to the force of common calamities. ”

“ For how can a writer represent a thing to the age, if he does not understand it thoroughly himself?
“How can he describe it properly, if he does not understand the effect it produces, and the consequences which follow it? ’Tis only a clear understanding of the subject in all its various branches, that can constitute a good writer; so that Horace’s rule, though applied by him to poetical performances, may with equal reason be adapted to other writings, and we may with him conclude, that
Scribendi recte sapere est principium et fons.” ”

“ Perhaps the hour of deception has treasured up disappointment more heavy and intolerable. What are his sensations, if the truth he now begins anxiously and fearfully to learn, is brought immediately home to his own bosom, and he is doomed to feel that the exalted and glowing ideas of friendship, which first expanded his soul, shrink even in his view, and leave his breast void and desolate. ”

“ I would now give the character of my instructor, but as I wish my secret not to be disclosed, I am aware that I must use no common circumspection. I do not now indeed dread the lightning of his eye, the thunder of his voice, or the weight of his arm; but I do not wish the bonds of complacency and civility, so long established between us, to be broken. If any one therefore shall think he can individually apply what follows, be it at his peril, not mine.
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My master then, be it known, was a most extraordinary personage; not less distinguished in literature than in politics. ”

“ But his ignorance of the world, and of the human character, frequently subjected him to be imposed upon. He was sincere himself, and never suspected the deficiency of that quality in others. He was a conscientious and pious Christian, and did not think it possible that infidelity could lurk under the specious mask of liberality, candour, a general taste for literature, a partiality for some of our popular ecclesiastical writers, and an avowed zeal for moral order. ”

“ A most notable example of liberality truly! A poor author was to beat his brains, confine himself to one arduous labour for two years or more, and then if a similar work, no matter whence or where, should steal from its retirement on the eve of the publication of that in question, there was to be no compensation, acknowledgment, or reward, for so much time irretrievably lost. It cannot be a matter of wonder, that the poor author left the worshipful bookseller in disgust, (for worshipful he afterwards became) and never afterwards sought a renewal of his acquaintance. ”

“ But when the object of this ardour takes a false name and wrong direction, when zeal is misled by an ignis fatuus, and not by the genuine flame of real liberty—when the name of liberty is made the stalking horse of ambition, the instrument of selfish ends and motives, the tool of the demagogue, the whoop of a low and sanguinary multitude, what great, what dire, and what deplorable mischiefs may be expected, we have too disastrous a proof in the source, progress, and history of the French Revolution. ”

“ A society was established under the most fortunate auspices, of which, the object was, to bring together individuals, who from their relative situations in life, were otherwise less likely to meet upon equal and familiar terms: men of rank, properly so denominated, and those who had exhibited such unequivocal proofs of learning and of talent, as to claim and deserve that countenance, which the conscious dignity of superior intellect is seldom disposed to solicit. ”

“ Fortunately at this time—this momentous time, an Englishman was found in Germany, who had the patriotism, the spirit, and the sagacity, to vindicate his country from the hostile attacks of the mischievous hireling writers, in the interest of France, and who exercised with superior skill, in the cause of truth and justice, weapons which the revolutionists and their crew had sharpened and employed for the basest and worst of purposes. ”

“ From music to poetry, the transition is natural and easy; she wrote, when very young, many elegant and beautiful things, which perhaps have not been excelled by any of the productions of her maturer years.
Her natural connections, her education, and the principles in which she had been brought up, gave her an unavoidable predilection in favour of those, who, on the breaking out of the French Revolution, vainly imagined that a glorious opportunity was presenting itself, for the melioration of the condition of mankind. ”