William Beloe

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Is it not to be seriously lamented, that an individual, so endowed, so confessedly entitled to the applauses of her countrymen, so constantly exercised for their benefit, and so perpetually engaged in the most amiable and useful occupations of social life, should have had active and zealous adversaries, who have disputed the sincerity of her piety, and maliciously and injuriously impugned the accuracy of her conduct? ”

“ 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. ”

“ But thus it always was, and this justice is willingly rendered him; that however reprehensible his public principles, his asperity in political animosities, his want both of temper and judgment in his criticisms, his pertinacity of opinion, and the total absence of candour, nay, it may be said, of charity, in his measuring all virtue and all knowledge by the standard of his own prejudices—yet when seen in the bosom of his family, he certainly appeared to conduct himself with the greatest mildness. ”

“ The remembrance of this tutor excites a sigh of deep regret. Nature on the score of genius had done a great deal for him, study more. He was a philosopher, a poet, well acquainted with the classics, an excellent linguist, a truly accomplished man. Remarkable for his kindness to his inferiors, more particularly so to those under-graduates whose means did not allow them the opportunity and advantage of private tutors. To such, even beyond the precincts of his own college, he would himself supply the deficiency, without hope or prospect of any compensation but their gratitude. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One of the tutors of the college was far from being popular, and the principal reason seemed to be, that he was what was then denominated “a Tuft hunter;” that is, one who prefers the society of a peer to that of a commoner, a lord to a baronet, and proportions his obsequiousness in an exactly graduated scale of rank and dignity. It was understood that his Reverence was to dine with a young nobleman, more remarkable for the quantity of claret he could exhaust, than for the brilliancy or variety of his intellectual attainments. ”

“ To write with correctness, elegance, and good sense, requires an able judgment, and a diffusive knowledge in literature. There must first be store of ideas treasured up, before any pure rivulets can flow from it. In short, ’tis necessary, in order to become a good writer, to understand well nature herself, to copy her in her paintings, to represent things in their true light, and then to decorate the descriptions with suitable language agreeable to Horace. ”

“ There was a time in England, and a dire time it was, when the contagion of the French revolution had so infected our purer atmosphere, that the disloyal, ill-designing, and more profligate part of the community, dared to use the language of violence, and of menace, to overawe and intimidate those whose sentiments they knew to be adverse to their own; who had the presumption to prophesy, that “church and state prejudices were coming to a speedy issue in this country;” ”

“ I had indulged many unamiable propensities—anger, revenge, and every duality which was in opposition to candour and to charity. I threw my satire into the fire, and since that time, though I have had abundance of temptations, I never wrote severe satire.
But to return.—The period of my first appearance at the university was marked by one circumstance unfavourable to my literary ambition. The number of students of my own standing was great, beyond all ordinary precedent, and no small proportion of them were distinguished as well by their literary diligence, as by superior abilities. ”

“ Like the worthies of whom we read in Greek and Roman story, you find in old age a calm and dignified consolation from the continuance of those studies, which, with the lustre of high birth, and amidst the fascinating allurements of ambition, you, my Lord, have devoted a long and honourable life to the calmer and more ingenuous pursuits of literature. ”

“ He was the last of the old school, after the death of the venerable Earl Bathurst, who, when he left the world, seems not to have had a surviving friend, to record his various talents and accomplishments. Yet Lord Bathurst was a nobleman of no ordinary attainments, of admirable taste, acute discernment, and great learning. When in the decline of life, and his sight began to fail him, his relation and chaplain, the present Bishop of Norwich, used to read the classics to him. ”

“ This tribute of gratitude and sincere attachment, is most willingly rendered to a man, who, whatever might be his failings in the opinion of his political adversaries, must have had the unqualified praise of all, for acuteness, sagacity, and for all the best powers of intellect. He was also a most polished gentleman; he bore his high honours without insolence, and without oppressing his inferiors by an affected condescension, conciliating all who approached him by his affability and graciousness of manner. ”

“ Retirement properly so called, for busy scenes and active employments; from a space in which there was not room for ambition, to one where ambition appeared to have no limit; from a spot where a few wild flowers occasionally charmed the sight with their beauty, and the senses with their fragrance, to the prolific and auspicious nursery of every science and every art; from knowing every body, to knowing nobody ”

“ The manuscript of our friend next introduces another class of society; different indeed from that of the Nobility, but no less estimable, nor at all less valuable. It may indeed admit of a question, whether, as far as literary men are interested, the warmest, truest, and kindest friends are not to be found amongst the professors of medicine. They are enlightened themselves; they owe their success to talent, cultivated by labour, and improved by experience. ”

“ But this is far from being the case; and lamentable it is to say, that every young man, without distinction, on shaking off the trammels of school, at his very first appearance in the character of a man, at Oxford or Cambridge, has every facility afforded him to pursue a career of thoughtless expence; nor does he recover himself, if he does recover at all, till remorse harasses his spirits, and fetters every better propensity by the compunctious recollection, that he has involved himself in debts and difficulties, which it must require the exertion and the labour of years to remove. ”

“ Be it permitted us to lament, yes, deeply to lament, that no friendly pilot among those upon whom she had the claims of kindred and of blood, stepped forward, in the progress of her little life, to steer her frail vessel through the storms and perils of a treacherous world. ”

“ A self-taught genius of very humble situation, who, with great and strong natural talents, possessed but very limited opportunities of cultivating them, had made considerable progress in a particular branch of science. Having, however, access but to very few books, he had adopted without reserve the system of his teachers, with all their prejudices and all their errors, and had formed, which is a common mistake in similar circumstances, the absurd idea, that few, if any other books than those which he had seen, were necessary. ”

“ At a remote period, and when we are far advanced in life, so far, that its close becomes almost discernible through the gathering clouds, memory delights to dwell on scenes that are past, and meditation lingers on the different individuals with whom we started in the race together, whose loss we deplore, or who yet fill stations in the world within the reach of our observation. ”

“ This lady’s first entrance into life was characterized by the most striking peculiarities, and she seems to have imbibed very unaccountable notions of political justice, in contra-distinction to those of nature and of duty.
As long as we continue uncorrupted by the world, the love of parents in most minds, grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength. This good lady, on the contrary, was not eminently distinguished by her filial piety, and at a very early period of her youth, she left her father’s house with abruptness and disgust. ”

“ But surely it is time that we should get our old friend from college, and accompany him to the active scenes which we have been describing. The awful period of examination for degree approached, and perhaps it may be truly observed, that the youthful and ingenuous mind, ambitious of distinction, but with the greatest industry and application, conscious of various deficiencies, never subsequently experiences so much perturbation. The personage immediately in question, had previously distinguished himself in public disputations, and had established a character for superior knowledge. ”