William Beloe

“ 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. ”

“ The individual next in succession was, and perhaps is, (for he may yet survive) a man of unquestionable genius; capable of high undertakings, both in prose and verse; but it is only with his qualifications and claims as a poet, that we have anything here to do.
Strange to say, but such is the perverseness of human nature, that the wisest among us, are sometimes apt to mistake our talents, and to plume ourselves most, upon those qualities, from the exercise of which, in the opinions of the more discerning and judicious, we are least entitled to applause. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The ties which bound him to existence, cruelly loosened before, are torn for ever by this last, worst stroke. The prospect which before warmed his heart, is narrowed and darkened on every side. The journey of life is before him dreary and comfortless. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whilst the mind was still in an unsettled state, and the imagination bewildering itself in visions of fancied occupation, accident (of all accidents surely the most fortunate) placed in the way an individual, to delineate whose character with fidelity and truth, though a most delightful task, yet it is one which requires no ordinary talents—no slight attention.
This occurrence, and this individual, gave a decided bias to the future pursuits, studies, views, connections, and prospects of the Sexagenarian. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Many are the characters who pass through the vale of life, who in their time contributed to the improvement of society by their accomplishments, rendered service to literature by their learning, and enlivened and delighted numerous circles by their wit, who have been suffered to pass away, as though they had never been, without any memorial of their talents, or their virtues. ”

“ To a mind of high wrought feelings, and heated imagination, the entrance of life is fairy ground. The objects which solicit attention, viewed through the medium of that elevated hope which youth alone inspires, shine with a brilliancy of tint not their own. ”

“ Why to that bonny man who has printed as many thick quartos as would outweigh himself, comprehending etymology, criticism, politics, geography, antiquity, poetry, nay, the whole circle of the sciences. I have no particular, and certainly not any personal, objection to his society, but as you do me the favour to admit me of your parties, I think it would be possible to find an individual of better conversation talents, of more interesting, if not of more diversified information. ”

“ In the school of distress the energies of the mind are disclosed, and, learning our own powers, we combat against the impression of adversity till we are able to contemn it. But here the sufferer finds himself as it were waked suddenly from a dream of happiness to intolerable misery ”