TheInfirmitiesofGenius 10172731

TH E
I N F I R M IT I E S OF G E N I US
I LLU S T R A T ED
B? R EF E R RI N G T il ! A V O M AL I E S I N
THE LI TE RARY C HA RA C TE R
TO T HE
HA B I T S A N D C O N ST I T UT I O N AL P E C U L I A R I T I E S
OF
M E N O F G EN I U S .
R . R . M AD DEN , ESQ .
A U THO R or
“
T R AVELS IN T U R h L Y,
”
&c .
Qn i ra t no n e co rpor is n o n hab e n t , s ed co n n t
g m o r t ale m im m ort ali, t e rr e s t re m
w lherae e q n ale m
pre s t ar e in d us t riam .
P L UT A RC H , D c S AN ” . T ow n .
IN T WO VO L U M E S .
VO L . I .
L O NDO N
S AUN DE RS AND O T L E Y, C O N DUI T S T RE E T .
1 833 .
TO TH E RIGHT HONOURAB LE
T H E E A R L O F C H A R L E VI L I E , .
WH OSE TASTE FO R LITER T

A U R E
AND
AC Q UAINTAN C E I VITH A L L S B ECTS

U J
CO N N E CT E D ‘V IT H T H E H I STOR Y O F
T HE VOTAR I S
E AN D VICTIM S OF LIT RARY P RS
E U I
U T S ,
T IM E HA S N OT I M P A I R ED,
NOR PL E A SU R E I S TE R R U P I E D ,
T HI S A TTE M P T
TO I L L U S T R A TE
T HE C HA R A C T E R O F M E N O F GEN I US,
IS D E D ICATED
’
BY m s L on n s m p s
’
1
M O ST R E S P E CTFU L -A N D G R AT E FUL SE R VA N T ,
THE A U T HO R .
M a y , 1 8 35 .
Pa g e 6 2 , lm e 6 , flrr D upu
1 66 3, fbr h av e
I N F I R M I T I E S O F G E N I US .
C HA P T E R I .
THE E FF E C T S OF L I T ER A RY H A B I T S .
IT is generally admitted that literary men are

an irritable race subj ect to many
,
in fi r m it ie s ,
both of mind and body ; that worldly p ro s e

p
rity and domestic happiness are not v ery often
the result o f their pursuits .
E ccentricity is the badge of all their tribe

and so m any errors acc ompany their c areer that ,
VOL . I B
2 T HE E FF E C T S or
fame and frailty would almost seem to be inse

parable companions . P erhaps it is wisely or
dained that such should be the case to check ,
the pride o f human intellect , and to render

those o f humbler cap acities contented with their
lot to whom nature has denied the noblest of
,
her gifts .
I t is the unfortunate tendency of literary

habits to enamour the studi ous of the seclusion
,
of the closet and to render them

, m ore conver
sant with the philosophy and erudition of bye
gone times than with the sentiments and feel
,
ings o f their fellow-men . T heir kno wledge of
the w orld is in a grea t mea s ure derived from

, ,
books not from an acquaintan ce with its act ive

,
du t ies ; and the c onsequence is that when they ,
venture into its busy haunts they bring with ,
them a spirit of uncompromising independence ,
which arrays itself at once against e v er v

p re
j u
L IT ER A RY H A B I T S . 3
dice they have to encounter : such a spirit is but

ill c al culated to disarm the hosti lity of any casual
op ponent or in the circle where it is exhibited to
,
“
”
buy golden opinions of any sorts of people .
If the felicitou s example of the poet of t he draw

ing room seduce them into the haunts o f fashion
able life they find them selves still less

, in their
element ; the e ffort to support the di gnity of
genius in a common -place conversation ,

costs
them perhaps more fatigue than the composi
, ,
tion of half a volume would occas ion in their

study . O r if any congenial topic engage atten
tion they may have the good sen se to subdue
,
their ardou r and endeavour to assume an awk

,
ward air of fashionable nonchalance ; they

may attempt to be agreeable they may seem to ,
be at ease but they are on the stilts

, of literary
abstraction all the time and they cannot , bo w
them down to kiss the crimson robe o f good

B 2
4 T HE E F F E CT S or
society with graceful homage . But these are

the minor incon v eniences that arise from long
indulgence in literary habits ; the graver ones
are those that arise from impaired health and
depressed spi rits the inevitable conseque n ces of
,
excessive mental application . Way wardness of

temper testiness , of humour and capriciou sness
of conduct result from this depression ; and
,
under such circumstances the errors o f genius

are estimated t oo often by their immediate con
s equences without any reference to predisposing
,
causes . The fact is the carriage

, o f geniu s is
unlikely to conciliate strangers while its foibles ,
are calculated to weary e v en friends and its ,
v ery glory to m ake bitter ri v als of its contem
p i
o r ar e s and comrades .
A ccordingly we find that its ashes are hardly

cold before its frailties
, ar e raked up from the
tomb and baited at the ring
, o f biography till ,
L I T ER A RY H A B IT S . 5
the public taste is satiated with the sport . It

is only when its competitors are gathered to
their fathers , and the ephemeral details of
trivial feuds , of petty foibles , and private
scandal are bu ried with their authors that th e
, ,
conduct of genius begins to be underst ood and ,
its character to be fairly represented .
The l uminary itself at last engages that atten

tion which had previously been occupied with
the specks upon its disc . I t was nearly a
quarter of a c en t ury he for e the malignan t
princ iples of M ilton gave the world su ffi cient
”
time to ascertai n there was such a poe m in ex

is t e n c e as P aradise L ost . O nly three thou sand
copies of it were sold in elev en years while ,
eight thousa n d copies of a moder n novel have

been disposed o f in as many days ; but we need
not go back to the age of M ilton for e vidence
of the tardy j ustice that is done to genius . T en
6 T HE E F F E C T S or
years ago the indiscretions of S helley had ren

dered his name an unmentionable on e to ears
polite ; but there is i
a r e ac t o n in public opinion ,
and whatever were his follies his virtues are ,
beginning to be k n own and his poe try to be

,
j ustly appreciated . It unfortunately happen s

that those who are disqualified by the limits of
their capacities for the high er walks of learning ,
are those w ho ta ke upon them the arduou s

duties of the literary Rhadamanthus and at ,
whose hands the masters of the world

generally receive the roughest treatment . The
competency of such a tribunal however must, ,
not be questioned even when a Byron is at its

,
bar genius has n o t the privilege of beingj udged

by its peers for the,
d iflicult y would be t oo
great o f impannelling a j u ry of its fellows .
But ho w few of those who fasten on the in
fi r m it ie s of great talent , for the purpose of

L I T ER A R Y H A B I T S . 7
gnawing away its fame like those northern ,
insec ts that prey
O n t he b r ai n s o f t he e lk t ill hi s v er yl as t s igh
ho w very fe w who track the errors of geniu s to

the tomb ta ke in t o consideration
, , or are capa
ble of estimating the influence on the physical
and moral c onstitution of studiou s habits inor
d in at ely pursued ,
of mental exertion long c on
tin n ed , of bodily exercise perhaps wholly neg

lec t e d ! H o w little do they know of the morbid
sensibility o f genius who mistake
,
its gloom for
dreary misan throp y ; or the di stemper ed
”
vision s of a heat oppressed brain , for imper
so n at e d opinions ; or the shadows of a sickly
i
dream for the real sent ments of the heart !
,
Ho w few of the fatal friends who violate the

sanctity of private life t o m in is t er t o the pre
‘
vailing appeti t e for li t erary gossip ever think , of

referring the imperfections they drag into

public noti ce , (yet fail not to deplore ) to a ,
temperament deranged by ill-regulated , or ex

i
c ess v e mental application , or of at tributing
the variable weather of the mind ,
which
”
clouds without obscuring the reason of the
individual to the influence o f those habits which
,
are so unfavorable to he al th ! S uicide might ,
indeed h ave,
w ell had its horrors for that bard ,
“
who was even a more s ensitive man than the
melancholy C owley ”
,
when he was informed that
one of his best-natured friends was only w ai ting
for the opportunity to write his life . But ho w
“ ’
devoutly might be have wished that nature s
”
copy in him had bee n eterne , had he known
how many claims were Shortly to be preferred
to the prope r ty of his memory and how many ,
o f those who had crawled into his confidence

w ere to immortalize his errors and ,
to make his
L I T ER A RY H A B IT S . 9
imperfections so many pegs for disquisitions on
perverted talents .
O f all persons who sacrifice their peace for

the att ai nment of notoriety literary men are
,
most frequently made the subj ect of biography ;

but o f all are they least fitted for that sort of
micro scopic biography whi ch consists in the ex

hibit ion of the minute de t ails of life . The
P ythoness , we are told was but a pitiable obj ect
,
when removed fro m the inspiration of the tri

od , and the man of geniu s is perhaps no less
‘
p , ,
divested of .
the attributes of his greatness when
he is ta ken fro m his study or followed in
‘
crowded circles . We naturally desire to know

every thing that conc erns the character or the
general conduct of those whose prod uctions hav e
en t ertained or instructed us and we gratify a ,
laudable curiosity when we inquire into their

history and seek to illustrate their writin gs by
,
'
B 5
”
the general tenor of their lives and actions .
But when biography is made the vehicle not ,
only of privat e scandal but , o f that minor ma

lig n it y of truth ,
whi ch holds as it were a
, ,
magn ifying mirror to every naked imperfection

of humanity , which possibly had never been
discovered had no friendship been violated no ,
confidence been abused and no errors , exa

gg er
ated by the medium through which they have

been viewed it ceases
, to be a legitimate inq uiry
into private character , or public conduct and ,
no infamy is comparable to that of mag n ifying

the faults , or libelling the fame of the illustrious
dead .
C onsider ,
”
says a learned G erma n , under
ho w many cat egories down to the most imper
,
t in en t , the world inquires concerning great men ,
and never wearies s t riving to represent to itself

their whole st ructu re asp e ct procedure outward
, ,
L I T E R A RY H A B IT S . 11
and inward . Bla me not the world for such

curiosity a bout its great ones ; this comes of the
’
world s old - establish e d necessity to worship .
Blame it not pity it rather with a cer t ain

,
lo v
ing respect . N evertheless, the last stage of
h uman perversion it has been said is when

, , ,
sympathy corrupts itself into envy and the ,
’
indestructible interest we take in men s doings
has become a j oy over their faults and m is for
tunes ; this is the last an d lowest stage—lower

”
than this we cannot go .
In a word that species

, of biography which
is writ t en for contem poraries and not for , pos
t er it y , is worse than worthless . I t would be

well for the memory o f many recent authors if ,
their inj u d icious friends had m ade a sim ple

obituary serve the purpose of a history .
It is rarely the lot o f the way war d child of

genius to have a C urrie for his hist rian and o ,
hence is it that frailties which might hav e ,
a wakened sympathy are ,

n ow only mooted to ,
be remembered with abhorrence . It is greatly

to be regretted that eminent medical men ar e
not often to be met with qualified like Dr ,

.
C urrie by literary attainments as well as pro

, ,
fe s s ion al ability for undertakings of this kind

,
.
N o class of m en have the means of obtaining so
intimate a knowledge of human nature, so fami

liar an acquaintance with the unmasked mind .
The secret thoughts of the invalid are as ob
v ion s as the symp t oms o f his disease : there is

no deception in the sick ch amber ; the veil of
the temple is removed and humanity lies before
,
the attendant in all its t ruth in all its helpless

, ,
n ess and for the honourable physician it lies

,
if we may be allowed the expression —in all its

holiness . N o such medical attendant ,
we ven
ture to asse r t ever went through a long life
,
o f
14 T HE E F F E C T S OF
who have snarled at its character the t endency

,
O f t he kno wledge o f o ur fello w-men is to make,
u s love mankind . It is to the practical and ,
thorough knowledge of human nature whi ch the ,
physician attains by the exercise Of hi s art that ,
the a ctive benevolence and general liberality

w hich pe c uliarly distinguishes the medi c al pro
”
fe s s ion , is mai n ly to be attributed . Do I ,
“
says Z i m merman , in my medi cal character
fee l any mali gnity or hatred to my s pecies when ,
I study the nature , and explore the secret

causes of those weaknesses and disorders which
are incidental to the human frame ; when I
examine the subj ect an d point o ut , for the
, ge
neral benefit of all mankind as well as ,

fo r my
o wn satisfaction all the frail and imperfect
,
parts in the anatomy of the h uman bod y

The more extensive o ur knowledge of human
nature is and the better acquainted
, we make
L I T E R A RY H A B I T S . I5
ourselves with t ha t s t rong influence which mind

and body mutually exert the greater wi ll be ,
the indulgence to wards the errors o f o ur spe cies ,
and the more will o ur aff ection s be enlar ge d .
H ow slight are those alterations in health

al mos t imperceptible to the ordi nary observer
which have produ c ed or agg ravated the gravest
ment al in fi r m it ie s A nd how incapable is he of
forming a j ust idea of them who is unable
, , n ot
only to detect but , to estimate the importance

'
of those apparently trivial physical deran ge

ments with which they are so intimately con
n e c t ed !
It would be a folly to imagine that an ordi

nary disease exerts such an absolute dominion
over the mind that the mor al perceptions are over
,
powered or perverted and t hat the individual

,
ceases to be responsible fo r his errors . When

the intempe rate man puts an enemy into hi s
mouth to steal away his senses , and under

its maddening influence commits a violent as .
sault upon his neighbour no one doubts but ,
that a state of temporary insanity was produc

tive of the offence ; nevertheless the o ffender ,
knew that such insanity was the inevitable con
sequence of intemperance and he is punished

,
for it accordingly .
The literary man who ind ulges in habits

prej udicial to his health cannot be supposed
,
ignorant of the e ffects that must arise from

excessive application ; and who can say he is
guiltless of the in fi rm it ies he drags upon
him ?
There is a case in Our criminal records of a
thief going o ut in the middle of the night to
rob a hen -roost and being attacked by a

, d og ,
he fired at the animal and chanced , to k ill a

servant of its own er , who had concealed him
self behind the kennel . There was no malice ;

the mi s chief was unpremeditated but the last ,
degree of violence was incidental to the fi rst ,
and the la w did not hold him guiltless of the

murder .
The studious man sets ou t with stealing an

hour or two from his ordinary repose ; some
times perhaps more ; and finishes by devotin g
whole nights to hi s pursuits . But this night
work leads to exhaustion ,
and the universal
sen se of sinking in every organ that accompanies
it suggests the use of stimulants most ro
, , p
bably of wine ; al cohol howev er in some shape

, ,
or other . A nd what is the result wh

-
y, the
existence that is passed in a constant circle of
excitement and exhaustion , is Shortened , or
rendered miserable by such alternation s ; and

the victim be co mes accessary to his o wn su ffer
ings .
18 T HE E F F E C T S OF
These are indeed , ,

extreme cases , yet are
they cases in point ; in all are the Offenders held ,
responsible for their crimes or errors but nev er ,
t hele s s are they entitled to our pity .
In a word if the literary man consume his

,
strength and spirits in his study forego , all n e
c es sar
y exercise keep his mind continually
,
the stretch and even at his meals deprive the

, ,
.
,
digesti v e organs o f that nervous energy which

is then essential to their he althy action if the
proteiform symptoms of dyspepsia at last make
their appearance and the innumerable anom a
,
lous su fferings which under the name o f nervous

,
and stomachic ailments derange the viscera and , ,
rack the j oints of the invalid ; if by constant

application the blood is continually determined
,
to the brai n and the calibre of the vessels

,
en
lar g ed to the extent of causing pressure or ef

fu
sion in that vital organ ; in any case if the ,
mischief there is allowed to proceed slowly

and steadily ,
perhaps for years (as in the case
,
of S wift ,) giving rise to a long train o f nervou s

miseries - to hy pochondria in its gloomiest form ,
or mania in its wildest mood , or paralysis in

the ex pressionless aspect of fatuity (that , fr e
quent termination of the literary career ;) —who

can deny that the su fferer has in a great mea ,
sure dra wn the evil on himself but

, , who will
not admit that his in fi r m it ie s of mind and
body are entitled to indulgence and com
p as sion ?
The errors o f geniu s demand no les s . A
” “
v igorou s mi nd ,
says Burke ,
is as necessarily
accompanied by violent passions as a great ,
”
fire with great heat . A nd to such a mind ,
whatever be its frailties , the j ust and the
20 T HE E FF E C T S OF L IT ER A RY H A
charitable will be incli ned to deem it ,
Bu rns ,
M i sl e d by fan cy s m e t eor
’
ra
y,
By p i
a s s on dn ve n ,
ligh h
B ut ye t t he t t at le d as t r a y
W ligh f
as t r om h e av e n .
22 A D V A N T A G ES OF
L iterature of late years has become so

g e
neral a pursuit that it is no small stock

, of
knowledge which enables a man to keep pace

with public information : go into what society
we may we are sure
, of meeting some in d iv i
dual with all the honours o f recent authorship

thick upon him .
I t is the pur port of this chapter to point o ut
the use and the abuse of studious habits and

li terary temperaments . P erhaps the greatest
of the advantages are those which are le ast oh
v ions to the observer . I t is not denied by

m any , that every facility afforded to the acqui
sitiou o f knowledge is an advancement o f the
public good ; and moreover an , , bid
av an c e of
the mischief which leisure unoccupied inflicts

on life .
But the latter benefit is generally over

looked only be cause the tendency is natural
L I T ER A RY P U RS U I T S . 23
to underrate the importance o f familiar facts .
I t surely is not the least advantage of literary

employment that it enables u s to live in a state
of blissful ignorance o f our next -door neigh
’
bo ur s fortune faith and politics ; that it pro
, ,
duces a state Of society which admits o f no

invasion on domestic privacy and furnishes u s ,
with arms agai nst en n ui, which supersede the

necessity of a standing army of elderly fem ale
moralists and domestic politicians
,
. In large
cities at leas t literature occupies the ground
, ,
which politics and scandal keep possession of in

small ones in the time of Tacitus the e v il was
com m on to the communities o f both
V i i um p i
t ar v s m ag n is q ue c iv it at ibus c o mmu ne
I g n oran t ium in v idiam

’
et .
L eisure, it seems had , no better occupation

ere the art of m ultiplying m anu sc ripts

”
through the inter v ention of machinery was di s
covered ; but in the s e days of book publishing -
P ress pours volumes on the

celeb r ity when the
,
town with the velocity of P erkin s steam gun ’

-
,
one has hardly su ffi cient leisure to acquir e a

kno wled ge even o f the names o f those d r ead
”
counterfeits of dead men s thoughts which
’
living plagiarism is continually recasting and

sending fo rth The grand di stinction between
.
metropo litan and pro v incial society is the ,
dearth of literature in the latter . In country

town s every indi v idual has a portion of his
time to devote to country politics or as he , ,
thinks to the affairs of his country ; and these

,
matters engro ss t oo much of his attention to
allo w him either time or taste for books . If

we analyze the bane of all provincial society ,
the result of the painful investigation is to

L I T ER A R Y P URSU I T S . 25
leave no o t her in g r edien t s in the crucible of the

mind t han politics and scandal The form er
,
.
is confined t o no on e portion of country life

it pervades the whole ; it co nstitutes half the
business o f exi stence, it form s the first of all its
rec reation s and embroils a neighbourhood
, of
perhaps the kindest hearted beings in perpetual

heart -burnings . B ut however useful and plea
sant it may be to devo t e attention to public
matters to the affairs of kingdoms
, , or contested
counties to , s uf
fer the s e subj e c ts to ab sorb all
the facul ties of the mind is , to indulge in a
passion which becomes the pes t of society .
P olitics may be t h profession f M r H ume e o .

,
the trade f M r C obbett the calling f M r

o .
, o .
H unt and t h cleri c al vocation of that gen

, e
t lem an who enj oys the enviable title of the

Devil s ’
C haplain ; but if we delude ourselves
with the idea that we exert any happy influence
VO L . I . C
26 A D V A N T A G ES or
over o ur country , or o ur own peac e by , t he
unceasing agitation of political ques tion s we ,
have form e d a mistak e n notion o f o ur duties , as
well as of our recreations . I t is n ot to politics

we m ust look fo r the enj oyment of tranq uil
leisure ,
n or from the m we are to expec t t hat
hap piness which in a great degree depends u pon
our s elves .
How s m ll
a h hum h
of all t at an e art s e n du r e,
Th at p ar t whi h l wc ki g a s or n s c an c ause or c u re
S ill
t t o o ur s e l i v esy pl n ev e r ace c on s ig d
ne .
0
O ur own f li i y w m k
e c t fi e a e or n d .
”
In fact the domineering passion

,
for politics
which so largely prevails in provincial town s ,
if it deserve the name of a recreation is , on e of
tha t s ort which his P lutonic maj esty may be

supposed to feel a peculiar interest in pro
m ot in g , in those dominion s where hatred,
L I T ER A R Y PURS U ITS . 27
malice and all uncharitableness

,
are presum ed
to dwell . The tendency of literature on the ,
other hand ,
is to turn the curre n t o f o ur
thoughts into the more gentle stream s of private

happin ess ; and it is literature alone th at can ,
banish the demon o f party disc ord from the

social board , where the sound o f politics is the
Signal for strife ; from the private circle where ,
calumny has been putting rancours in .

the
vessels of o ur peace ; an d eve n from the pre
’9
c in c t s of the boudoir , where the breath o f
scandal not unfrequently contaminates the rosy

atmosphere o f love itself . If the tea-table ha s
e sed to be the t errible areopagus of village

c a
po litics where private reputation u sed formerly

,
to be consigned to the tender mercies of maiden

gentlewomen an d venerable matrons , whose
lei sure had no other occupation— it is because

literature has afforded them an employment
C 2
more pleas ing to themselves and less inj urious ,
to others . It would be idle to expatiate on the

good which li t erary p ursuits are calculated to
e ffect in every circle . T he country gentleman

need n ot be reminded that literature , o f all
sports even when pursued as a mere desultory
,
pastime is the noblest pleasure that can

, be
chase d . The military man is well aware that

the days of E nsign N ortherton are long gone
by and that it has ceased to be the fashion
, to
shoot maledictions at literature even through

,
the sides o f H omer . The learned professions

are no longer ashamed to cou ple their graver
studies with the lighter graces of erudition ,
whose tendrils may cling around the loftiest

branches of science without encumbe ring its
technical attainments . The higher orders are
well aware that when , t he blood o f all the
”
H owards canno t ennoble an unenlightened
l edge the removal

, of ignorance an d prej udice .
”
“
The comm onw ealth f letters to u se the
“
o ,
'
elegant langu age of a m odern philosopher , is

of no party and , o f no nation ; i t is a pure
r epublic , an d always at peace ; its sh des a ar e
disturbed n ot by do m estic malice , or foreign

levy ; they resound n ot with t he cries o f fac
tion , or public animos ity falsehood is the on l
y
enemy their inhabitants denounce ; Truth and ,
her minis t er R eason , is the only guide they fol

”
lo w . In a word every , m ode of developing
the god-like ap prehension which is the connec t
ing medium betwee n mere organic an d s pi
ritual exi stence is a vindication ,
of our title
to I mmortality and an evidence of the nobility
,
of that attribute on which we rest o ur su
p e rio r it
y over the brute creation . It i s
”
through li t erature an d science , says Davy ,
tha t we may look forward with confide n ce to

L IT ER A R Y P URSU I T S . 31
a stat e of soc iety in whic hthe di fferen t orders and

clas ses o f men will contribu t e more e ffectually
,
to the su p port of each other than they h ave .
hither t o done C onsidering and hoping that the

.
human spec ies is cap able f be coming more c o n
lightened and m re happ y we can only ex p ec t

o ,
that the di fferent p arts f the great whole f o o so
i t y shou ld b intimately united by m

c e e ean s f o
knowledge ; that t h y h uld t t h c hildre

‘
e s o ac as e n
of o n e grea t P ar en t , wit h on e d et erm inate end

'
, so
that no power may be ren dered u seless, and no
exertions t hro wn away .

32 A BUSE s OF
C HA P TE R I I I .
A B US E S OF L I T ER A R Y P URSU I T S .
THE di sadvantag e s o f li t era t ure, and

quently the advantages of ignorance are much,
better under st ood in T ur kis h co untries and , a
more salu tary terror en te rtained of them than

in an
y C hristi an clime . But even in the latter ,
there are many good and able men — amongst

whom we are happy to be able to place that
very respe c ta ble and consistent gentleman , Mr .
William C obbett — who regard the march of
intellec t with no very favourable eyes and who ,
think, with the m artyr of the gr idiron , tha t the

L I T ER A R Y P URSU I T S . 33
progress o f crime is in a direct ratio wi t h the
pace o f the schoolmaster ,

”
and that the result
o f the labours of that great functionary has
been neither conducive to the peace o f E urope ,
or the tranquillity o f E ngland . If the s chO Ol

master has been abroad verily it must be ,
ac knowledged , the democrat has followed so
closely at hi s heels that the energies a wak ene d

,
by t he former have been se ized on and per
verted by t he latter . , A nd truly it m ust be

confessed , the benevolent intentions of the
schoolmaster have been t oo often like those of
the republican philan t hr op ist towards the needy
knife-grinder . The husks of science have been
t oo frequently the only gifts he had to offer ,
when the popular stomach had need o f some

thin g more subs t an t ial . A fa m ished tailor, to
very little pur pose , acquires a sma t t ering o f
geometry ; a bu t cher , o f algebra ; or any

C 5
3 4s A B U SES or
”
others o f t he order of the great unwas hed,
of an elem entary knowledge of politi cal economy ;

milliners , to little advantage , m ay be come
c unning in c onchology ; and even tradesm en
when they dunned us might present them selves
,
at o ur doors ,
em bod yin g in their perso n s all t he
principles of the exact s ciences and yet deri v e ,
no benefit from their knowledge of mathe m ati cs .
The s choolmaster has indeed been abroad in

the lower walks of life but may he , n ot hav e
commenced like the Iri sh tu t or,
,
at the wron g
end o f learning , an d launched his raw disciple s
t oo soon into the great ocean of eru dition and,
t oo prematurely s et them afloat with the , pro
mise o f a pleasant and profitable voy age ?

S uch a v oyage might be agreeable enough
“
when no perils were at h and but if their poor
deluded bark had to encounter the s qualls or
party strife and t he surge o f discontent like ,

L I T ER A RY P URSU I T S . 35
u s n kilful m ariners , t hey might be likel y to
hug a rocky shor e and discover wh en it

, , was
t oo late they had been turn ed adrift with out

,
chart or com pass to direct or guide them , or
e nable the m to take advan t ag e o f the sec urity

o f g ood
T his grievous error of the schoolmaster ,
we apprehend has , had much to do wi th the

ri dicule that has been thrown on the march
o f intellect . The minds of the middling classes
may have been p e pared
r for the reception of
the elements of scientific knowledge but , n ot so
with the capacities of the lower classes ; useful

and ag reeable instruction o f a literary kind was
what was adapted to them and that precisely ‘
which they did n ot receive .
A society for the di ffusion of rational happi

ness peaceful orderly and c nte ted feelings
, , , o n
,
was the sort f society whose labours might

o
36 A B U SES OF
have been useful t o the rural pop ulat ion ; t h e se

might have tended to have rendered them con
ten ted with their lo t , while Other effort s may

have been only calculated to raise them above
it , and e ven make them di ssatisfied wi th its
'
‘
laborious duties . O f lat e, howev er many che ap

,
productions combining u seful and amusing mat

,
ter free from politics an d fitted for their ca pa

, ,
cities have sp rung up ; but it is surp rising how

,
few of them have yet m ade their way into the

h ands of the p easantry . W ere they more gene
rally di ffused ,
it is very p robable that the beer
shops with the weekly provision
,
of penny re
publicanism those inse p arable companions the

,
R egister , ”
M an s G uardian
and the P oor ’
,
”
w ould lose a great portion f thei r att action o r .
S ome paradoxical philosophers have exercised

their ingenuity in m aintaining that knowledge is
a source of m isery , and t hat ignorance is bli ss .
38 A B USE S OF
ply t o authors them selves for an account of t heir
sta t e it will a ppear very li ttle

, to deserve envy ,
for they have been in all ages addicted to co m
plaint and few h ave left their names

, to pos te
rity without some appeal to future candour from
the perverseness o f malice of their o wn tim es .
We have nevertheless be en inclin ed

, , to doubt
whether authors , however querulous are , in
reality more miserable th an their fellow

men .
T he tr uth is the abuses of study are its only

,
disadvantages . St . A ustin has well called it
s c ien t ia s c ien tia r wm , om n i m e lle d ulcior ,

”
om n i pa n e m a n ia r ,
/
om n i v in o hila r ior . No
wonder if the student in the enj oyment , o f s uc h
a pleasure forget the pan gs which

, ove T appli
cation is sure to entail on the constitution . It

is indeed so se ductive a pursuit that the wear ,
and tear of mind and body produce no im me

L I T ER A R Y P U RS U ITS .
39
diat e weariness and , at t he momen t no ap parent

ills B ut s t ud has no sabbath the mind of t he
.
y ,
t he
'
studen t has no holiday , la bour he delights

in physics pain ; ”
he works his i br ain as if its
delicate texture was an im perishable material
whi ch no excess was capable Of inj uring Idle . .
n es s to him is the (e rug o an im al the T ubi

g o in
‘
but th e insidious corrosive of inten se

'
g en iz
thought and incessant study is taken I nto no
account its certai n e ffects are overlooked

, be
ca use its actio n at the t ime is impe r ceptible .
S urely ,
”
says F icin us , sc holars are the
mos t foolish men in the world ; other men look
to their tools — a painter will wash hi s pencils a ,
s m ith will look to his hammer a hu sbandman ,
will mind his plough-iron s a huntsman will ,
have a care Of his hounds a m usician , of his
l ute— scholars alone neglect that i n s t rument

which they daily use , by whi ch the y range over
40 A B USE s or
the world, and whi ch by s t udy, is much , con
”
sumed .
little
'
It seem s , indeed ,
short Of madn ess to
neglec t that instrument on the c ondi tion of
whose delicate chords the harmony o f every

tone o f intellect de pends , and which , once
”
j angled o ut o f t ime and harsh , all the swee t
musi c of the set t led mind is s poiled pe rhaps , ,
for ever .
A nd what is there in t he s a n ct a m tu
s a n ia m o f genius to enamour u s of its gloom ,
and to walk in t he paths of error which lead to
it ? error g r a t is s i m us m an t is it may be and se ,
d uc tiv e as the fascination o f p assio and poetry

n
can make it , b ut what is there in the dis tem

pered vi sions of T asso, C o wper , C ollins S harpe , ,
or S wift, to rec on cile us to the e cstasies of the

disordered mind or , to su ffer u s to persi st in
the same habi t s, or con tinue t he same ex
L I T ER A R Y P URSU I T S . 4]
i exertions whi ch dist urbed their

'
ce ss v e , r ea
I
s on
r SO long as l ife is admitted to be the res ult of
the co- existe nce of mind and body - SO long as

we are convin ced of the intimacy of their union
by the manner in which they reciproc ally sym
p a t hise with each other— so long as we per c eiv e

i
the powers of the mind augmenting with health ,
and diminishing with disease- so long as we

bser ve that the min d i s incapable O f O cc u a
‘
O
p
tion wh en the body is wearied by V iolent e xer
cis and in it turn u fi t t ed for exercise when

e, s n ,
the men t al powers are fatigu ed by over exe t io r n
Of the former—w can arrive but t e con clu a on e
sion that the b alan c e

, o f heal th can be main
t ain ed in it s natural equili briu m o nly when
mental exert ion is propor tioned to bodily ac ti
v it
y . W hen t his is n ot the c ase li t erary fame
i s dearly p ur chas ed ; an d all the glory t hat
42 A B U SES OF
surrounds it cannot m ake amends for t he health

that has been sacrificed for its attainm en t .
d épem
’
On es t t r ap s ava n t qu a n d on l est cu
de s a s an té d quoi se rt la s c ien ce s o n s 16 bon

”
he ur ?
In conclusion there are a few words Of

,
i o se o f a summa
T ssot s which serve the pur r
’
p y
o f the precedi ng Observations . To comprehend
the influence o f mental labour on physi cal
health it is only necessary to remember in the
, ,
first pla ce that the br ain is

,
in action when on e
thinks ; se condly that the tendency of contin ua l

,
action is to produce fatigue and that fatigue ,
deran g es the functions because every debilita t ed

,
organ perform s its duties imperfec tly and irre
g ular l ;
y thirdly that all the nerves pro c eed
,
from the brain and precisely from that part

, of
it which is the organ of thought the common

,
se n s orium ; fourthly that the nerves are

, on e o f
L I T ER A RY P U RS UI T S . 43
the most im portant part s o f the human ma
th at t hey are necessary to every func

tion , and that when once their action is de
ranged the whole animal economy su ffers from
,
that derangemen t
44
4 T HE N RVO S ENER GY
E U .
C HA P T E R IV .
THE NERVOUS E N ER GY .
B UT what is thi s subtle fluid which exerts so
wonderful an influence over m ind and body ?

U nder ho w many names has t he kno w
led ge of
its nat ure baffled human inquiry in all ages !

and how ignoran t still are we of its essen c e !
still is it kno wn to us only by its effec ts .
W e feel when the nervous energy abounds

that every thing is well with us ; we find when
it is deficient that we are depressed ; we know
if it is exhausted tha t we become debilitated ;
46 T HE NERVO S ENER G Y
U .
el ec t ric fl uid ? The n ervou s energy howev er , ,
is so m uch a part and parcel of the vital prin

ci
ple, their union is so intimate that whether ,
they stand in the relation o f cau se and effect ,

or are di fferent names only for t he same essence ,
they cannot be separately considered . The few

ob servations that follow al together
‘
ar e n ot
levan t to the subj ect o f these pages nor is th er e ,
an y thing beyond the range of legitimate in
qu iry , in the consideration o f the nature of that

power which is the sou rce of animation . W ere
we indeed to j ump at the sum m ary conclu sion
, , ,
that life is the sum total Of the functions as some ,
have asserted , we should fal l into the error of
mistak ing a subordinate e ffect fo r an original

cau se ; forgetting that although life is
, c o- ex
is t en t with the developement and cessation of
t hese functions it is the nervous energy which

,
c alls t hem in t o action . W ha t ever be its na t ure ,

T HE NE RVO U S ENER G Y . 47
it is yet an intermediate link evident though , ,
n ot obvious in that perpetual chain of cause

and e ffect which is the connecting mediu m be
tween animat ion and the great A uthor of it .
”
T he first link o f that chain , says Darwin ,
is rivetted to the throne o f G od di iding, v it
self into innumerable diverging branches which , ,
like the nerves arising from t he brain perm e ate

,
the most minute and most remote extremities o f
the system , di ffusing motion and sensation

’
through t he whole .
AS every cause is superior in power to the

effect which it has produced so ,
o ur idea of the
power of the Almighty C reator becomes more
elevated and sublime as , we trace the operations
o f nature from cau se to cau se ; climbing up
the links of those chain s o f beings till w e ascend,
”
to the great source o f all things .
The doctrine which would h ave us suppose

48 T HE NERVO S ENER GY U .
t hat this wonderful machine the human frame , ,
originated in a fortuitous concourse o f atom s ,
has its error in fa iling to trace the cau ses Of the

combination o f matter to their remote origin ,
and therefore chaos and its produc t s are t o t his

system what na t ure and the r e sults of her well
ordered designs are to true philosophy
,
. T he
doctrine we allude to confounds the attributes
o f mind with the properties of m atter by , re
ferring the mental faculties to the aggrega ~
tion of t he function s o f the body . This is n ot
only the error o f ascribing remote results t o their

nearest origins, but o f referring dissimilar
e ffects to the same immutable cau s e . Thi s
doctrine like that
,
o f P ythagoras travels in a ,
continual circle of life and death and the only ,
t wo truths it admits are — death becau se it is

, ,
certain and inevitable , and reproduction , be
cause ev ery thing that lives must die and under

T HE NERVO S ENER G Y
U . 49
die and u ndergo the process of decomposition ,
before it particles again acqui re vitality and

; ,
enter into the formation O f new compounds .
The w hole history of humanity is to this s

y s
tem , on e series of transform ations ,
N ot hi g
n of it t h d hfd
at ot a e
B ut d h
ot h g
s uffe r a s e a c an e
I n to s o me t hi g
n rar e an d s t ran g e .
”
To it of all abodes the gra v e is the most preg

, ,
nant with vitality ; every c or s e t hat is consigned to

earth confers life o n myriads o f other creatures
,
w ho had not known that enjoyment if death had

not occurred . But even though every atom on
the surface Of the earth may have been a por
tion of something once li v ing now inert— though ,
”
h umanity may not s huflle o f
f its mort al coil ,
without peopling the clay which covers it

w ith its spoils where is the spirit to be sought
,
that animat e d man — in what unhallowed recep

VO L . I . D
50 T H E NER O S ENER G Y V U .
tacle has the a ura of intellect taken u

p its
abod e ?
hu p T o a ar t ,
Ab ov e , b y d 0 ll m migh y mi d
e on , te e, t n ,
Wh e r e ar t h u ! h ll I di i h d
t o s a ve n to t e ee p ,
C ll
a to t he s un k h , i g wi d
o r as t e ro ar n n s,
Wh e r e art th ou
In this d reary doctrine trivial , t ruth s

curiously considered and those Of most impor ,
tance wholly overlooked . I t illu strates the

h orrors of death and renders the hope of future
,
life a repugn ant feeling a loath some anticipa ,
tion Its light s are like the lamps in sepulchres

.
,
they gleam upon th e dead but they give , no
lu stre to the living . That light of life that ,
god -like apprehension which renders m an the

m onarch of created beings is wholly lost sight ,
of in the inquiry after the final disposition of

the particles of which his body is composed .
T H E NERVO S ENER G Y U . 51:
L ife and death have their an alogies for this

system b ut the spirit Of m an and immortality
,
hav e none There is no link betwee n humanity

and heaven The body is allow ed to hav e its
transformations bu t the mind is not worthy ,
of
a transmigration , not even to be portioned

amon g the worms which have their be i ng In
o ur forms .
By whatever name this v ital principle is de

s i n at e d , animus or anima aura or e fllat us ,
g ,
spark or flame etherial or celestial perplexity

, ,
at every step besets the doctrine of its extine

tion . A nd ho wever speciously and even sin ,
c ere ly, its entertainer may uphold it ,

still in
secret there are there must be misgi v ings, , of its
truth .
A n d ye t on e d ubo t
P u u him ill l ll h
rs es di st , es t a e c an n o t e
L h p b h f li f h p i i f m
est t at ur e r ea t o e, t e s r t o an ,
Whi h G d i p i d
c t g h p ih
o ns re , can n o to et er er s
C)
D d
52 T HE NERVO S ENER G Y U .
W h hi p l l d h i h g
it t s c o r o re a c o t en n t e rav e ,
O i r m di m l pl wh k w
n so e s a ace , o no s
B h h ll d i
ut li i g d h ! 0 h ugh
e s a e a v n e at t o t
M h ibl i f u l
os t orr e, tr e
”
In a word the error of this doctrine like

, ,
that o f many othe rs is in attributing , , o bVI o us
e ffects t o their immediate instead of their remote

and ultimate cau se and in tracing si m ilitude s
,
in d issimilar analogies .
m arch ) has thrown little if any add ition al light

,
on its phenomena for the last t hirty years yet ,
a few facts have been noticed whose tendency is

to show that there is a similitude between the
phenomena of the nervou s and the electric
fluids .
Whenever the properties of the latter Shall

be better understood than they are at present ,
in all probability the principle of the nervou s

en ergy will be more cognizable to the range
(limited as it m ust n ece ss arily a lways be) of
h uman knowledge . A day , in all pr obability ,

will come when the genius
,
of some futur e
F ran kli n will make that fifth element ”
, and
most powerful o f all be t t er known th an it
,
no w
is and trace the an alogies of the subtle spark

which pervades all space with t hat corporeal ,
fire which fills the nerves with life, and heat ,
and c ommuni cates vitality and Vigor , to every

T HE NERVOUS E NER G Y . 55
fibre of the heart and it s remotest vessels . The

nature o f the nervous ene rgy may t hen become
bette r understood , and that invisible aura
which fan s t he blood and invigorates the bod y
'
be known to us by something more than its

effects .
”
In this View ,
to use the words of one who
applied electrical agency to the grandest di s
“
cov e r ies Of o ur time , we do not look to dis
ta nt ages ,
or amuse oursel v es with brilliant ,
though delusive dreams concerning infinite , im
probabili ty Or the ann ihilat ion Of di sea s e or
death . But we reason by analogy from simple

facts . We con s ider only a stat e Of human pro
g r e s s io n arising o ut Of its present condition we

look for a time tha t we may reasonably expect ,
for a bright day of which we already behold

the dawn
The influence which electricity exert s over
vegetable life till very lately has been over

,
looked and even now the same fashion which

,
domineers in academies as well as in boudoirs ,
has rendered the doctrine of animal , or rather

v it al electricity , as appa rently ridiculous as that
of electro—
chemica l agency was considered , be
fore Davy by , it s means changed the whole face

,
Of that scien c e which he so nobly cultivat ed .
N othing , perhaps , has tended more to the -
di scredit of thi s theory than the inordinate

expectations which med i cal electricity called
forth so me forty o r fifty years ago when , it was
u shered into practice as a universal remedy and ,
which s hared the fate o f all n ew remedies whose

powers ar e over-rated abu sed and ultimat ely
, ,
decried . But o f late ye ars , on the contin ent ,
the infl uence Of the electric fluid on Vitality has

again forced itself on public attention ; and in
the south of F r nce

a we have seen whole vine
T HE NERVO S ENER G Y U . 57
yards in which numerous elec tri cal conductors

were at t ached to the plants for the purpose , of
increasing the progress Of vegetation and of in ,
v ig or a t in g the vines .
In the same manner does electricity act on
the animal body the circulation being quick

,
ened by its stimulus and the fluids driven ,
through the small capillary vessels with in
creased V elocity . S ome recent discoveries of
Dr Wilson P hillip have proved that the cire n

.
lation in the sm al ler capillary tubes may con
tin n e for some hours after death and that their ,
current in life is n ot synchronous with that of
the heart and indeed that the doctrine of the

, , ,
circulation of the blood is inadequate to the ex

planatio n of the phenomenon j ust mentioned .
T he facts that are stated we have no reason

to doubt ; on the contrary further expe rience
,
will probably tend to corrobo rate them ; but

D 5
58 THE N E R VO US ENE RGY .
nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the ex

planation which is given of the phenomenon .
An observation of Brydone however thro ws , ,
no little light on the subj ect If ou

y cau se
”
water , he says , to drop through a small ca
pillary tube the moment , y ou elec trify the tube

”
the fl uid runs in a full stream . E lectricity ,
he adds , must be c onsidered as t he great
vivifying principle o f nature , by which she car
ries on most of her Operations . I t is the most
subtle and active o f all fluid s —it is a kind of
soul which pervades and quickens every part of
nature . When an equal quantity of electricity

i s diffused through the air and over the face ,
of
the earth every thing is cal m and quiet but if

, ,
by ac cident on e part of m atter has acq ired a u

greater quantity than another the most dread ,
ful con sequen ces ensue before the equ ilibrium

can be r stored nature is co vulsed an d t h un
e : n ,
TH E N E RVOUS ENER G Y . 59
der lightn ing earthquak es

, , , an d whi rlwi n ds
”
ensue .
But it is n ot t he elements only that are

t hrown into di sorder by these elec trical ch anges
,
in the at mosphere every thing that is organ ic

,
su ffers by them ; the vigor of pl ants is di m i

n is hed , the ani m al functions are disturbe d and ,
the nervous system ,

o f delicate individuals ,
strangely and unaccoun tably depressed .
Who has experienced the influence of the

sc irr occ o of t he sou t h o f E urope , the poison
ou s kamsin of the E ast or even the summer
,
south-east wind of o ur o wn clime without fee l

,
ings o f indescribable lassitude which are

, n ot to
be accounted for by any alteration in the tem pe ra
ture but solely
, to the variation in the quantity
'
of electr icity d ifluse d through the atmosphere .
In the prevalence of these winds , the air is

nearly deprived o f it altoge t her and the ner
,
60 T HE NER V OU S ENE R G Y .
vous system is simultaneously de prived of its
elasticity . In damp weather likewise when it ,
becomes absorbed by the surrounding humi dity ,
every inval id is well aware ho w unaccountably

dej ecte d his spirits become and ,
ho w feebly t he
v arious function s o f the body are performed ,
es pecially those of the digestive organs . This

state of morbid irritability of the whole frame
continues till the north or west w ind , as Bry
done has well expressed it , awakens the acti
v it y of the animating power of electricity which ,
soon restores our energi es and enliv en s all na

ture which seemed to droop and languish in
,
its absence .
In very frosty weather , on the other hand ,
when the atmosphere is surcharged with elec

t ric it y, there is a corresponding el e vation of
spirits which sometimes amounts to an almost
,
painful state o f excitement . In our tem perat e

62 T H E NE R V O US ENE R G Y .
their bo dies filled with electricity and every ,
part of them so saturated with it that , s

p o n ta
neon s sparks were emitted with a crackling

noise and the same painful sensations which
,
are felt by those w ho are electrified by art .
Dupuytren in his memoirs ,

o f the R ussian
campai g n , mentions his having seen similar
effects from the ex cess of the electric fluid O n
,
.
one occasion he says when the cold was , e x ces
sive the manes of the horses were found elec

,
t rifi e d in a manner similar to th at described by

S aussure .
A ltogether it is truly wonderful , that an

agent that exerts so powerful an influence on
vitality should have met with
, so little inquiry
from t he time of P riestley to that o f Davy ,
or
least that no discovery except that of elec tro

at - ,
chemical agency , should have resulted from

any inquiry that may have been attempte d .
T HE NE RVOUS ENER GY . 63
A nd that wonder is the greater, when we recall

the prophetic enthusiasm with which both of
those illustrious men whom we have j ust named

, ,
have spoken of the results which scien ce has to

expect fro m the enla rgement of our knowledge
of the elements o f ele c tricity .
M r F ar day however we are happy to find

. a , , ,
has lately taken up this neglected branch of
scien c e and made discoveries which are likely

,
to lead to most important results .
S ir H umphry Davy concludes the ac count of

the extr ao rdinary e ffects he had experienced by
the application of electrical agency to chemical
action in these w ords : N atural electricity has
'
hitherto been little in v estigated except in the ca s e ,
of its evident and powerful concentration in the

atmosphere . I ts slow and silent operations in
every part of t he surface of the globe will pro
bably be found more im m ed iat elv and im por
64 T HE N E R v o us ENER G Y .
t an t ly connected with the order and economy

of nature ; and investigation on thi s s ubj ect can
hardly fail to enlighten our philosophical sys

tem s of the earth , and may possibly plac e
”
n ew po wers within our reach .
P riestley sums up his Opinions on this subj ect

in these emphatic ter m s E lectricity seem s t o
be an inlet into the internal struct ures of bodi es ,
on which all their sen sible prope rties depend :

by pursuing , therefore ,
this n ew light , the
bounds of natural science may possibly be ex
tended beyond what we now can form any idea
o f. N ew worlds may be opened to o ur View ,
and the glory o f the great S ir I saac N ewton

him self m ay be eclipsed by a new set , of philo
”
sophers in quite a
, n ew field of speculation .
Before we conclude thi s subj ect there is , a
circumstance respecting Dag/y and his biog r a
pher Dr , . P aris deser ing of attention

, v . It a
p
T HE NE RVO S ENERGY
U . 65
pe ars that Davy in common with many

, en
lightened philoso phers and physicians o f the

present day was di ssatisfied with the
,
ex
plan a p
tion which is comm o nly given o f the ph ysiology

of respiration and the mode in which heat i s
,
supposed to be evolved by that process Wher e .
Davy doubted he was not a ,

m an likely to be
stopped in the search of truth by the j argon

, o f
science or the plausible fallacies o f physiology .
H e accordingly appli ed hims lf to the disco ery e v
of a more satisfactory theory of respiration and ,
the result of his inqu iries was that , t he n e rvous
fl uid w a s i de n t ica l w ith ele ct r ic ity , and that the

heat that was supposed to be e v olved by the
process of respiration was extricated by elec
,
tricel agency .
T his t heo r v of the identity of the ner v ou s

fluid w ith electricity , we loo k u pon as a co n
j ec t ur e (discovery it cannot be called ) which

66 T HE NE RVOUS E NERGY .
w ill on e day lead to more important results than

have arisen from the grandest of his electro-che
mical discoveries .
H is biographer tells us that in considering

the theory of respiration Davy sup posed that
,
phos-oxygen combined with the v enous blood

without de composition ; but on reach ing the
brain that electricity was liberated which he ,
believed to be identical with the nervous fl uid .
S upposing sensations to be motions of the ner

vou s ether ,
or light in the form
, of electricity
exciting the m e dullary substance of the nerv es
”
and brain .
T his opinion Dr . P aris c alls a theory which

has sc ar el
y a parallel in extravagance and ah
surdi ty ' These are strong terms S cience .

,
we think should discard the u se of harsh ones

, ,
but w hatever be the fate of this opinion of
.
Davy s the commentary has no par all el in pre
’
sumption .
TH E NE RVOUS ENERGY . 67
The theory o f the identity of t he nervous and

electric fluid may receive little countenance for
a time ; it may be t oo m uch contemned to attract
even the notoriety of opposition to its doctrine ;
it m ay be buried in Oblivion for half a century ,
but the ghost of this opinion will rise again ,
though it may not be in j udgment against its

impugners— their peaceful slumbers will pro
bably be too profound to be in c ommoded by
the resurgam of the opinion they opposed .
P erhaps when Da y propounded it he migh t

v ,
have thought like Kepler M y theory may ,

“
n ot be received at present but pos terity will

,
adopt it . I can afford to wait thirty or forty

years for the world
’
s j ustice since nature has
,
”
waited three thousand years for an observer ;
for Davy ,
like Kepler had his moments of
,
”
66
glorious egotism , but like the astronomer ,
he had geniu s to redeem his vanity .

68 I NFLUENCE OF S T U DI OUS H ABIT S
C H AP T E R VI .
I NFLUENCE S T U DI OU S H ABIT S
OF O N T HE
D UR ATI ON OF L I FE .
IT is a question whether di fferent kinds of
literary p ursuits do not produce differen t dis

eases ,
or at least different modifications
, o f dis
ease ; but there is very little doubt that a vast ,
di fference in the duration of life is to be Oh
se rved in the various learned professions and ,
the several directions given to mental applica

tion whether by the cultivation of poetry, the
,
s tudy of the la w, the labours of miscellaneou s

composition or the abstraction of philosophica l
,
'
70 I NFL U ENCE OF S T U DI OU S H ABIT S
productions like those poets who w ill thro w

,
you off a hundred verses , S t a/n t es in pe d e
wn o,
’
as H orace as it . I t is your wi se and
grave authors day and night , , who work for
posterity , who wear themselves out with labour .
But they are not so m uch inj ure d by study

who only covet to know what others knew
before them and reckon it the best way to
,
make u se of other people s madness as ’

, P liny
says of tho s e who do not take the trouble
to build new houses but rather buy and live in
,
those that are built by other people . M any of
these professors of learning are subj ect to dis

eases peculiar to their respective callings , as
your eminent j urists , preachers ,

and ph ilo
sophers , who spend their lives in public
”
schools .
F or the purpose of ascertaining the influence

of di fferent studies on the longev ity o f authors ,
ON T HE D UR ATI ON OF L I FE . 71
the tables which foll ow have been constructed

in which the nam es and ages of the most cele
br at e d authors in the various departments o f
literature and science are set down each list ,
containing twenty names of those individu als who

have devoted their li ves to a particular pursuit ,
an d excelled in it . N o other attentio n has been

given to the selection than that which eminence
suggested without,
an
y regard to the ages of
those who presented themselves to notice . The
obj ect wa s to give a fair Vie w of the subj ect ,
w hether i t told for or against the opinions that

have been expressed in the pr e ceding pages .
I t must however be taken into account that

, , ,
as we hav e only given the names Of the most

celebrated authors and in the last table those
,
of artists in their di fferent departments a ,
greater longevity in each pursuit might be

inferred from the agg regate of the ages th an
72 I NFLUENCE OF S T U DI OUS H ABIT S
properly may belong to the general range

of life in each pursuit . F or example in ,
moral or natural philosophy a long life , of
labour is necessary to enable posterity to j udge

of the merits of an author ; and these are
ascertained not only by the value but , al so
by the amount of his com positions . I t is by a
series of researches and , r e- casts o f opinion that
,
profound truths are arrived at and by nume ,
rous publications that such truths are forced on

the public attention . F or this a long life i s
necessary and it certainly appears from the
,
list that is subj oined that the vigour of a gre at

,
i n tellect is fa v ourable to longe v ity in every

literary pursuit ,
w
herein imagination is seldo m
called on .
There is another point to be taken into con

sideration that the early years of genius
, ar e not
so often remarkable fo r precocity as is
, co m
ON T HE D U R ATI ON OF L I FE . 73
'
m on ly supposed and where it is otherwise it

, ,
would seem that the earlier the mental faculties

are developed , the sooner the bodily powers
begin to fail . It is still the ol d proverb wit h
such pro d igies , S o wise , so young they ,
sa
y
’
do ne er live long . M oore says the five most ,
remarkable instances of early authorship are ,
those of P ope , C ongreve C hurchill C hatterton

, , ,
”
and Byron . The first of these died in his fifty
sixth year the second in his ,
fift y-eighth , the
“ ”
thir d in his thirty fourth -
, the sleepless boy
committed suicide in his eighteenth and Byron ,
di ed in his thir ty-seventh year .
M ozart at the age ,

o f three years began , to
display astonishing abilities fo r m usic and in

,
the t wo following years composed some trifling ,
pieces , which his father carefully preserved ,
and like all prodigies his career

, , was a short
one— he died at thirty-six . Tasso from in
VOL . I . E
74s I NF L UENC E OF S T U DI OUS H ABIT S
fancy exhibited such quickness of understand

ing that at the age
, of five he was sent to a
Jesuit academy and , t wo years afterwards re
ci ted verses and orations of his own com posi

tion ; he died at fi ft y-on e . Dermody was
employed by his father who was a school ,
master as an assistant in teaching the L atin

,
and G ree k languages in his ninth year ; he died

at twenty-seven . The A merican prod igy , Ln
c re t ia Davidson was another melancholy insta nce

,
of precoc ious genius an d early death

, . Keats
wrote se veral pieces before he was fifteen , an d
only reached his t wenty-fift h year . The ardour

’
of Dante s tempe rament we are told , , was
manifested in his childhood . The lady he c ele
b ra t ed in his poem s under the name of Beatrice ,
he fell in lo v e with at the age of ten and his

,
enthusiasm terminated with life at fift y-six .
S chiller, at the age o f fourtee n , wa s the author

ON T HE D UR ATI ON OF L I FE 75
of an epic poem ; he died at forty-six C owley .
published a collection of his j uvenile p oems ,
called P oetical Blos om s at Sixteen and died s

”
,
at sixty-nine .
But it would be u se less to enumerate in
stances in proof O f the assertion that the earlier ,
the developement O f the mental faculties the ,
‘
more speedy the decay Of the bodily po wer s fi
One m k bl i
of t he m hw
os t re fp ar a e n s t an c e s , o e v er , o r e!
y f t l
c oc xt o d ly ppli t i u p
a en t an ea r di hl a ca on , o n r e c or , s t e at e
l b d A h l g i V i i wh di d i 1 8 1 8 h
ce e r at e rc a o o st s c on t , o e n , at t e
a e o
g f S y -
i xt Wh ly igh m h ld h k w
s ev en . en on e tee n on t s o e ne
hi s alp h b ; h
a et
g f w
at uld d i i gui h d m
t e a e o t o co st n s an na e
h bu
t e f h R m
s ts o mp
t e d i o id h an d e erors , an s sa to av e re a
L i
a t n an d G k w ll hi ti l gu g b f h h d
re e as e as s na ve an a e, e ore e a
co mp l d hi f u h y
e te s o rt e ar .
76 PRE C O C I OUS Ta L E N T s .
CH A P T E R VI I .
PRE C OC I OU S TA LEN T S .
NO common error is attended with worse con

s equences to the childre n Of genius tha n th e
practice of dragging precociou s talent into early
notice of encouraging its growth in the
,
ho t -bed
of parental approbation and Of endeavouring

,
to give the dawning intellect the precocious

ma turity of that fruit which ripen s and rot s
almost simultaneously Tissot has admirably
pointed o ut the evils which attend the practice
of forcing the youthful intellect . The ef
”
feets of study vary , says this author , ac
.
78 PRE COC I OU S TA L EN T S .
parents and gu ardians who encourage or re
quire this for ced application treat their , pupil s

as gardeners do their plants who in trying , , to
produ ce the first rarities of the season sac ri fice

,
some plants to force others to p ut forth fruit

and flowers which are always of a short dura
tion and are inferior in e v ery respec t
,
to those
which come to their maturity at a proper
”
season .
Johnson is, indeed , of op inion that the early

,
years of distinguished men , when minutely

trac ed furnish evidence Of the same vigour
, or
originali t y o f mind by which they are cele

,
brat ed in after life . To a great many mem o

rable instan ces this Observation does not apply ,
but in the maj ority it unquestionably holds

good an d especially in those instances in which
,
the vigour which John son speaks of displays

itsel f in the developement of a taste for general
PRE COC I OU S TA L EN T S .
79
li t erature, and still more for philosophi cal in
q uir ie s .
S cott
’
s originality was early manifested as a
story-teller and , n ot as a scholar ; the twenty
fift h sea t at the high school in E dinbu rgh was
no uncommon place for him . Y et was the
fut ure writer o f romance skilful in t he invention
and na rration Of tales Of knigh t-e rrantry and ,
battles and enchantments

,
Before se ven years of age , says Bo ccacc io ,
when as yet I had met wi t h no stories was ,
without a master, and hardly kn e w my letters ,
I had a nat ural talent fo r fi ction and p r odu ced

,
”
some li ttle tales .
N ewto n , ac cording to his o wn account was ,
very inattentive to his studies , an d low in his

class but was a great adept at ki t e-flyin g wit h
, ,
paper lantho rns attached to the m to terrify the

co untry people O fa dark nigh t wi t h t he ap pear
80 P RE COC I OUS TA L EN T S .
ance Of comets ; and when sent to market with

’
the produce of his mother s farm was apt to ,
'
neglect his business an d , to rumin ate at an inn

over the la ws Of Kepler .
Bentham we are told was a

, , r em ar k ablv for
’
ward youth reading R apin s E nglan d at the
,
age of three years as an am u sement ; Telem a

,
:
chus in,
F rench at the , a
ge of seven ; an d at
eight t he future patriarch o f j urisprudence it ,
appears , wa s a proficient on the Violin .
Buonarroti while at school employed every

, ,
m oment he could steal from his studies in

drawing .
P rofessor L esley before his twelfth year had

, ,
such a talent for cal culation and geo metri ca l ,
exer ci ses that when introduced

, to P rofessor
R obinson , and subsequently to Playfair those ,
gentlemen were struck with the ex t raordinary

powers which he then displayed .
P RE CO C I OU S TA LEN T S . 81
G oethe in childhood exhibited a taste for

, ,
the fin e arts ; and at the age of eight or nine

wrote a short description of twelve scriptural
pictures .
F ranklin unconsciously formed the outline

, ,
of his future character from the scanty materials

a tallow-chandler s library ; and t he bias
’
of
which influenced his after-career he attributes ,
’
to a perusal in Childhood Of Defoe s E ssay on
P roj ections .
All these , with the exception Of S cott and

L esley arrived to extreme Old age ; but there
,
is nothing in the early indication of the

ruling pursuit o f their after lives that was ,
likely to exert an unfavourable influence on
health . Tho s e early pursui ts were rather re
creation s than laborious exertions and ,

far dif
fer en t in their e ffects from those we have spoken

of in the preceding instances of p recociou s talent .
E 5
82 PRE COC I OU S TA L EN T S .
That di fference in the variou s kinds of lite

rary and scientific pursuits and the infl uence Of
,
each on life the following tables are intended

,
to exhibit ; each list of names it being remem

,
ber ed containing twenty n ames and the amount

, ,
at the bottom Of each the aggregate of the

united ag es .
T A B LE I .
N ATU RA L PHI LOSO H ERS

P .
P O RT S .
Ag e .
1 B ac on , R .
78
81
'
2 B uflon
3 C p rn i cu
o e s 70
4 C u i
v er 64
5 D av y 51
6 u
E ler 76
7 F ran a
8 il
G al eo
9 H ll y D
a e , r.
10 H hl
e rsc e
11 K pl e er
12 L a L an d e
13 La P l ac e
14 Low en hoe ck
15
16
17 N ewt on
18 Tyh c o B ra h e
19 Whi s t on
20 W ll o as t on
l
T ot a 1 4 94
TAB LE I I .
M OR A L PHI LOS O H ERS

P . D R A M A T I S TS .
N am e .
B ac on A lfi e r i
B yl
a e C orn e ill e
B kly
er e e , G . G oe t h e
C d t
on or c e M as s er ig n
C di l l
on ac M arl ow
D e s car t e s O t wa y
D id e r ot R aci ne
F gu
er A s on , . S hill
c er
Fi hc J Tte , . . S hak s pe are
H tl y D
ar e , . Vo l i ta re
H l iu
e v et s Co ng re v e
H bbo es C o lm an , G .
H um e C r ebillon
K an t C umb e r an l d
K ai m e s F arq uh ar
k
L oc e Go ld i on
M l b
a eh ran c e J on s on B , .
R id T
e , . L op e d e V e g a
S t ewart D , . M oli ere

S t . L a be tm r Mu rphy
86 LONGEV IT Y OF A U T HOR S .
T A B LE I V .
A U TH ORS O N A U TH ORS O N
R E EA LED R E L I I O N
V G . N AT U R A L R E L I I O N G .
B t
ax e r
B ll rmi
e a n e
B ut l J er, oh n
B s uet
os
Ca li v n Dr umm on d , S ir W .
C hillin gw ort h
Do dd i dg
r e P r et e t , N .
Fox , G .
K n ox , J ohn H er be rt , L or d
Lo wt h J aco bi
uh
L t er Pa i
ne
M ass illon P om pon ati us
M elan cthon Rou s s e a u

Paly e S pi n oza
P t u
or e s St P. i e rr e
P i tl y
r es e S h a ft e s bu ry
Sh l k
er oc
W l y
es e
W h i fi ldte e
TA B LE V .
M ED I C A L A U TH ORS . P HI LOLO I S TS G .
Na m e .
N a me .
1 B r own , J .
B tl y
en e
2 C orv i s art Bu tr on
3 C ull en C as ubo
a n
4 D ar win Ch ke e
5 F ordy ce H ar t z h ime
6 F t h gill
o er H ar m an , J .
7 G lla He y ne
8 G g ry J h
re o ,
o n L ips ius
9 H y
arv e P arr
10 H b de er en Pa wu
11 H ffmo an P i ghi us
12 Hu J
n t er , . P e rs on
13 Hu W
n t er , . R aphele n g ius
14 J en n e r S alm at ius
15 M as on G ood Sc a lig er , J J . .
16 P ar cels us S ig on ius
17 P i lne St e p h en s , H .
18 Sy d en h Sy lbur g i us
19 Ti ss ot V os s i u s
20 Will i s, T .
W olfi us
T otal 1 368
L O N G E V I TY OF A U T HORS .
T A B LE V I .
AR T I S TS . MU S I C A L CO M P OSE RS .
Na me . N a me .
B an di lli
ne
B e rn n ii
C an ov a
D on at e ll o
Flax m an
Gh ib i e rt
Gi ot t o
Mi h l A g l
c ae n e o
S an Sov i n o
Veroc c hio
Carac i A c , .
D avi d
G uid o
R ph l
a ae
R y ld
e n o s
S l R
a v at or os a
V er on e s e , Pa ul
W est M b er
LONGEV IT Y OF A U T HOR S . 89
The following is the order of longevity that

is exhibited in the v arious lists , an d the average
duration of life of the most eminent men in ,
each pursuit .
h il ph
N at ur al P os o ers
M l P hi l p h
or a os o er s
S ul p
c d P i
t ors an a n t er s
Au h t ors onL w d J u i p ud
a an r s r e n ce
M di l A u h
e ca t or s
Au h R
t or s on l d R lig i
ev ea e e on
P hil l gio o s ts
Mu i l C ps ca om os e rs
N ov eli d Mi
s t s an ll u A u h s ce an eo s t ors
D m i
ra at s t s
Au h t N u l R ligi
or s on at ra e on
P oe t s
90 LONGEV IT Y OF PH I LOSOPHE R S ,
CHA PT E R VI I I .
LONGE VI T Y OF PH I LOSOPHER S PO E T S , ,
A S T RONOME RS .
F ROM these tables it woul d ap pe ar that those ,
pursuits in which imagination is largely exerted ,
is unfavourable to longevity . We find t he
difference between the uni t ed ages Of twenty

natural philosophers and that Of the sa me num
,
ber Of poets , to be no less than three hun dred

and sixty years ; or in other words the average ,
of life to be about seventy-fiv e in the on e , an d

fi ft y-seven in the o t her .
FO E T S, A N D A S T RONOME RS . 91
N atural philosophy has, then ; t he first plac e

in the li st of studies conducive to longevi ty and ,
it may therefore be inferred , to tranquillity of
mind and bo dily well-being : and

, p oetry a
p
pears to occupy the last . W hy should this be
80 ? I s natural philosophy a less laborious
study ,
or calls for less profound reflection than
poetry ? O r is it that the latter i rather a s
pa sion than a p ursui t which is t confined to

s ,
no
the exertion f a p articular faculty but which

o ,
demands t he exercise o f al l the faculties and ,
communi cates excitemen t to all o ur feelings ?

O r is it that the t hroes o f imaginative labour
are p roductive o f great er exhaustion than those
of all the other facult ies ?
P oetry may be said to be the natural lan
guage o f the religi on Of the heart whose uni ,
versal worship extends to every obj ec t that i s

beautiful in n ature or brigh t beyond it . B ut
92 L ONGE V IT Y OF PH I LOSOPHE RS ,
this religion o f the heart is the religion of
enthusiasm whose inordinate devotion borders

,
on idolatry and whose exaltation is followed by

,
the prostration of the strength and spirits .
P oetry ”
, as M adame De S tael has beauti
full y expressed it , is the apoth eosis of senti
”
ment . But this d eifi cat io n Of sublime c on ce
p
tions costs the priest Of n ature n ot a little for

the t ran s fi g urat ion Of simple ideas into splendid
imagery ; no little wear and t ear o f min d and
body no small outlay Of fervid feelin gs
,
. NO
trifling expenditure Of vi t al energy is required

for the translation o f fine thoughts from the re
gions of earth t o th os e of heaven and by the time ,
that world s of invention have been exhausted

and new imagined , the poet h as commonly
abridged his life to immortali ze hi s name . The
Old metaphysicians had an O d d idea Of the mental
faculties , an d especially of imagination , but
94 LONGEV IT Y OF PH I L OSOPHER S
t he Obj ect of their embassy . By this means

both head and heart were Often led astray and
,
in this confusion of all conceived commands

and all concocted s pirits— the visions Of poets ,
the dream s Of invalids , and the chimeras of

superstition , had their origi n .
- The greatest
truths may be approached by the most fanciful
v ehicles of thought . Be these chimeras engen
dered where they may in whatever pursuit the
,
imagina tion is largely exercis ed , enthusiasm

and sen sibility are Sim ultaneously develo p ed ,
and thes e are qualities whose growth cannot be

allowed to exu be rate without bec omin g un q ue s
t ion ably unfavourable to mental tranquillity ,
and con sequen t ly inj uriou s to heal th .
A gain , we find the cool dispassionate inqui

ries Of moral philosophy which are directed
, to
the nature of the human mi n d and to the know ,
led ge Of truths whose t en d e cy

p is to edu c ate
POE T S ,
A N D A S T RONOME R S . 95
the heart by setting bounds t o its debasing pas

sions ,
and to e n large the mind by giving a
fitting scope to its ennobli ng faculties are those ,
pursuits which tend to elevate and at the same

,
time to invigorate , o ur thoughts and have ,

no
infl uence but a happy one on life . We need

not be surpri se d to find the moral historians oc
cu
py in
g the second place in the list Of long
lived authors .
B ut if the list of natural philosophers

, c on
sisted solely o f astron omers , the di fferen c e

would be considerably greater between their
ages and those Of the poets for the longevi ty ,
of professors Of this branch Of science is truly

’
remarkable . I n the Time s Telescope for 1 833 ,
there is a list of all the eminent a stronomers ,
fro m Th al es t o t hOSe o f the las t century ; and

out Of eighty-fi v e onl y twenty-fi v e had died
under the age Of si xty five had lived to be tween
,
96 LON G EV IT Y OF PH I L OSOPHE R S ,
ninety and a hun d red— eighteen bet ween eighty

and ninety — twenty-fi v e be tween seventy an d
eighty— seventeen bet ween sixty and seventy

ten between fifty and sixty —fi v e between forty
and fi ft y — and four between thirty and forty .
In no other pursuit does the biography of men

Of genius exhibit a longevity at all to be com
pared to this . NO other science indeed tends
, ,
so powerfully to r aise the mind above tho s e tri

vi al vexations and petty mise ries of life which,
make the great amount of human evil . NO
other science is so calcula ted to spiritualize o ur
faculties to give a character Of serenity

,
to
wonder which never su ffers contemplation to

,
grow weary of the Obj ects O f its admiration .
The tyranny o f passion is subdued , t he feelings

tranquillized ; all the trivial concerns of hu
manity are forgotten wh en the mind of the

“
astronomer revels in the magnificence Of this
98 LON G EV IT Y OF PH I LOSOPHE RS ,
temple o f celestial knowledge he kno w s the ,
precincts which human science cannot pass ;

reason tells him these are my limits , , SO far
may I go but no farther
,
but he turns n ot
away like the vain metaphysician bewildered ,
by fruitless speculations ; for the voice of t he
spirit that lives and breathes within him

, , en ~
courages the hope that futurity will unveil the

mysteries which n ow baffle the comprehension
of science and philosophy . There glitters n ot
a star above his head that is not an argumen t

for his im m or t a li ty ; there is not a mystery he
cannot solve that is n ot a motive for deserving
it . A nd to the brightest luminary in the hea
v ens in
, t he
. confidence Of that immortality he ,
may say in the beautiful language o f C ampbell ,
Thi p i i h ll
s s rhimt s a r e t urn to ,
Th g i h
at ly p k
av e
g ts eav e n ar ,
Y hi k
et t i h ll h dim
n n ot , s un , t s a e
Wh h u hy lf d k
en t o t se ar t ar
POE T S ,
A N D A S T RONOME RS .
N o ; it Sh
ll li g i d hi
a ve a a n , an s ne
I bli
n u k w b m f hi
ss n no n to ea s O t n e.
B y him ll d b h
r ec a e to r e at ,
Wh pti l d p i i y
o ca ve e ca t v t ,
Wh bb d h g
o ro e f i y
t e r av e o v ct or ,
A d t k h
n oo gf md h
t e st i n ro e at .
1 00 LONGEV IT Y OF
CH A P T ER I X .
LONGEV I T Y OF J U R I S T S A ND D R A M ATI S T S .
T HE lists of the law authors and the dram a

t is t s present a striking contrast in respect o f
age . H ere we find a di fference o f on e hundred

and forty-six years . The gen tlemen Of the
gown being so much longer lived than tho s e Of
the sock and buskin . A nd here again the

, , nu
favourable infl uence Of pursuits in which ima ,
g in at ion is largely exerci sed is to be Observ ed

, .
Though law has occasionally to do with fiction ,
it is only in Ireland that it has to deal with

1 02 L O N GE V I I Y
'
OF
t his country tha t we have bee n ind uced

, to
t ranscribe the greater portion o f the prefatory

epistle . I readily comply with your reques t ,
and willingly proceed to relate those in fi r m it ie s
and Obstacles to heal t h whic h seem most to fo l
low the bustling life we lawyers are won t to
lead that you may be able

, to lay do wn for us
more accurate rules and modes Of ma naging

o ur h eal th , in the treatise you are about to
publish on the di s orders of the members f

o o ur
A country life is n ot only more agreea ble

but more heal thful than that Spent in town ,
in the di scharge Of pub lic duties which dr ag ,
pec uliar di s eases aft er them . S t omachic and

ne phritic affe ctions and inn umerable other ill s
,
that follow in their train are the con sequences ,
of the s edentary habits Of o ur city life . The

s ource of all o ur d isorders is eas ily traced ;
J U R I S T S A N D D R A M ATI S T S . 1 03
that which murders us is the constant si t ting

that is unavoidable in o ur professions ; we sit
whole days li ke lame cobblers either at home , or
in the courts o f j ustice ; and when the meanest

fello w in the state is either exercising his body ,
or unbending his mind , we m ust be in the

midst o f wrangling disputation s .
Though the condition of all men t oo busily

employed is miserable yet are they most miser
,
able who have not leisure to mind their o wn
aff airs . T he torment of the constant babbling

in .
t he courts is pleasantly set forth in that old
play where one com plains
, to H ercules , Y ou
k now what wretchedness I underwen t when I

was forced to hear the la wyers plead . H ad
you been compelled to listen to them with all ,
your courage you woul d rather have wished
yourself employed in cleansing the A ugean

stabl e .
”
L ONGE V IT Y OF
I t is an ugly custom we have brought into

use of getting into a coach every foot we have
to go : if we di d but walk the fo urth part of
the distance that we ride in a day the e v ils of ,
our sedentary habits m ight be greatly ob v iated

by such exercise . But the world is come to
this pass that we see m to have lost the u se of

,
our feet and doubtless you will think it

, n eces
sary to recommend o ur ancient method of per .
ambulating .
M artial thought it m adness for a hale you g n
man to walk through the town on the feet o f a
q uadruped . A nother of our disad v antages is,

that our doors are beset continually by a crowd
o f people . T he most disputatious pettifoggers ,
and brawlers by profession are e v er teasing us

,
w ith their outrageo us j argon of the law . Now
S eneca says a man cannot be happy in the

midst of many people for it fares ,
w ith him as
L ONGEV IT Y OF
A s for my way o f li v ing, it inclin es to no

extreme : a spare diet is perhaps fittest for the
life we lead for , C lsu s
e wrote not for us when
he said tha t ,
m en sh o uld eat m uch m eat
tho ugh subjo ins the caution— provi de d the y
he
can dige st it Though we are not great ban

.
q ue t t er s in general yet somet imes we giv e

, way
to j ol lity in company and mingle o ur wis dom

,
with wine wi thout observing the nice limits Of

,
sob riety . B ut ho w far the se things are to be

allowed or a v oi d ed —how far it may be ad v ie
able to exercise the body to correct the evils ,
of repletion , to w alk in the free air to expan d

t he chest with plentiful breathings ; how far it
may be necessary occasion ally to change scene
or climate t o renov at e our strength and spirits
these are t h
i ngs in which we expect to be direc t ed
by your wisdom . Truly it is most reas onable

,
to advi s e us to t a ke i
a r and exercise and to re
,
~
JU RISTS A N D D R A M ATI S T S . 1 07
create our minds : holidays were se t apart by

public authority for that purpose . But we are
like slaves who have no remi ssion from labour ;
,
on some festivals indeed we alternate

, , o ur toil ,
but we do not lay it aside ; we m ust attend to

business in some shape or other whether in
,
listening to depositions abroad , or In giving

Opinions at home ; we are like the person s de
scribed by E uripides — we are the slaves of the
public and , o ur li v es are in the hands of the
people .
L et u s profit by the melancholy example o f

those who have tarried too long on the bench ,
or at the bar ; and as years gain on u s let us

contract o ur toils and secure
, an honest retreat
for o ur ol d age for it s latter days are the
,
’
la wyer s only holidays . In proper time let us ,
bid our long farewell to the bench and to the

court .
1 08 LONGEV IT Y OF
The first and middle term s Of existence we

sacri fice to the public— why should we not be
stow the latter On ourselv es ? L et u s take in

due time the counsel o f the Roman z- P ack up
o ur a wls at the approach Of ol d age— and hav -
'
ing lived in strai ts the greater portion O f o ur

”
d ays , let us di e in harbour .
S uch is the S ieur Xilan d er s account of the ’
toils of the profession o f which he was a di stin
uishe d member But with all its labours we

g .
,
find that our list Of eminent lawyers indicates

a length Of life considerably greater than that
of the imaginative pursuits Of the poets dra ,
~
m at is t s , no v elists and musical composers

, .
The distinction has been made between dra

m a t is t s and poets becau se the most numerous
,
instances of ad v anced age are found amongst

the former . The toils o f uhe dramatist and
those Of the general poet are of a very di fferent
1 10 LONGEV IT Y OF
dim shadows imagination in to being and

f
'
o ,
give to legendary exploit s the v ivid charact er

of actual events . The office of C omedy , on the
other hand is to catch the living manners
, as
they rise to place the pecu li arities

,
of nation al “
character in their strongest light to make the ,
follies o f the time the food of wit , an d in the

corre c tion of malevolent absurdi ty to make ri
di oule do that for which reason may not be a
p
pealed to . In a word to mingle mirth with
,
“
morals ,
to hold the mirror up to nature , to
show Virtue her o wn image, vice her o wn defot

mity the very age and body of the time its
, ,
”
form an d pressure .
That the labours of dramatic composition

hav e not the same depressing influence on the
energies o f life as those of the other branches o f
poetry may be inferred
, fr Om the astonishing
fertility of dramatic invention and likewise ,
of
J UR I S T S A N D D R A M ATI S T S . 111
the longevity Of many of its authors . L ope de

V ega is sai d to have written eighteen hundred
pieces for the theatre ; forty-sev en quarto vo
lumes o f his works are extant twen ty-fi v e , of
which are com posed of dramas : he died of
hypochondria in his seventy-third year ; and

little is it to be wonder ed at that the literary ,
m alady should have closed the career of so

voluminous an author . G oldoni wrote t wo
h un d red plays which are published in thirty

,
one octavo vol umes . H ad S hak spear e attained

the age o f G oldoni he would probably have
,
been as prolific an author —thirty-seven dramas

have immortali zed hi s short career and these ,
productions have to boast of a fate which those

Of no other dramatist ancien t , or mod ern ever
,
met with . After an inter v al of t wo hundred

years ,
fi v e-and-twenty of his pieces still keep
possession o f the stage .
1 12 LON G EV IT Y OF ME DI C A L A U T HORS ,
CH A P T E R X.
LON G E V IT Y O F M E DI C A L A U T HORS , A ND
M I SCELL A NEOUS W R IT E RS .
TH E amount of the united ages o f the medical

authors exceeds that of the novelists and es
sa
y ist s by on e hundred and twelve years ; and
“
here agai n ,
the authors of imagination all
”
compact are found very nearly at t he bottom
o f the list , while t hose into whose pursuits

,
imagination little enters in po int of longevity

,
rank high above them . It may be truly

said without any hyperbole
, ,
that every pur
s uit whic h ennobles the mind, has a tendency t o
'
1 14 LONGEV IT Y OF M E DI C A L A U T HORS ,
brightest of those orbs than in the

, con ce
p
tion of that power which bestows the spirit
, of
vitality and the attribute of reason on m an .
Infinite wisdo m is only di fferently displayed ; it

matters n ot ho w, whether in the revolutions o f
the planets or the circulation of the blood

, , in
the transmission of solar light and heat , or in

the mechanism of the e e, or the sensibility of
y
the nerves the inquiring mind is ultimately

,
carried to the same creative power . But above

all philosophers to the medic al Observer what a
,
miracle o f wisdom is the formation of the

human body and the wonderful faculties
, su
“
erad d e d to its organization ! What a piece
p
of work is man ! H o w noble in reason ! how
infinite in faculties ! In form and moving how
express and admirable ! In action ,
ho w like
an angel ! in apprehension how like a,
G od !
The beauty of the world ! The p aragon o f
A N D M I SCEL L A NEOU S W R IT ER S . 115
”
animals ! In a word , the tendency of the
pursuits Of the physician is to enlarge his nu
d er s t an d in g , and to e nlighte n his views on ever y

subj ect to which they are directed .
The list o f miscellaneous writers is equally

divid ed be tween the novelist and essayist . The
former whom we may consider as the regular
,
practitioners of literature appe ar to enj oy a,
g rea t er length o f days than their p riodical

e
br ethren who cannot boast the voluminous dig

n it of the acknowledged novelis t The result
y .
,
however shows that the compulsory toil Of

,
periodical co mposition has a greater influence

on health than volu n tary labours to a far
greater amount . This opinion is co rroborated
by an observation o f Dr John son no mean
.
,
authority on any subj ect connected with literary

hi story . H e that condemns himself to com
pose on a stat ed day will oft en bring
, to his
1 16 LONGEV IT Y OF ME DI C A L A U T HOR S ,
task an attention dissipated a memory embar ,
r as s e d, a mind distracted with anxieties , a bod y
languishing with disease ; he will labour on a

barren topic till it is t oo late to change it ; for in
the ardor of in v ention his thoughts become dif
,
fused into a wild exuberance which the pressing

hour O f publication cannot su ffer j udgment to
examine or reduce There is indeed no labour

, ,
more d e s t r uc t ive t o health than that of pe riodical

,
literature and in no species of mental applic a

,
tion or even of manual employment is the

, ,
wear and tear O f mind and body so early and SO
se verely felt . The readers of those light arti

cles which appear to cost so little labour in the
v arious literary publications of the day , are
little aware ho w many con stitutions are broken
down in the service O f their literary taste .
But with the novelist it is far di fferent ; they

,
have their attention devoted perhaps for months , ,

1 18 LON G EV IT Y OF M E DI C A L A T HOR S
U ,
beneath the castle walls to bring the very ,

s pot
to the mind s eye where
’
, death h as broken
the strong man s spear and overtaken the s pe e d
’
,
of his war-horse — t o invest the soldier of the
cross in his panoply

,
of steel : like C e vante
r s,
to carry the ex altation o f knight-errantry to
the extremest v ery o f credible absurdity , to

m a
y it agai nst windmills ; to couch the lan ce
o f the cavalier and send his gallant steed against
,
an army of soldadoes , or a flock of sheep , or to
gi v e the shadowy forms of mental entrancement

a spiritualized being , made up of be auty
and romance ,
or o f baleful passions — a F lora
M I v or
‘
or a h aggard E lspeth —this is the
business of the no v elist and it must be allowe d ,
no unpleasing occupation is it .
S o far as the labour we deli ght in physics

pa in pleasant unquestionably it is but light
, ,
and amusing as it may seem still is it labo ,
rions .
A N D M I SC E A NEO U S
LL W R IT E R S . 1 19
The author o f the R am ole r has j ustly o h

“
served ,
it is no unplea sing em ployment to
Wr ite when one sentiment readily produces an
other and bo th ideas and expression pre s ent

,
them selves at the first summons ; but such hap
pin es s the g reatest geni u s does not always at
tain and common writers know it only to such

,
”
a degree as to credit its possibi lity . In fact ,
there is no m an , however great his powers to ,
W hom extensive composition is not a se rious

labour ; and in fiction those productions like, ,
S terne s , ’
w hich seem to be the very outpour
ings of the mind are generally those which cost
,
the greatest e ffort .
The most accurate observer of nature is ,
generally the most painful thinker ; the deepe st

thinker is seldom the best talker ; and he Whose
memory dra w s least on his o wn imagi nation
(paradoxical as it m ay seem ) is often the most
,
1 20 L ONGEV IT Y OF M E DI C A L A U T HOR S ,
fluent writer . Those animals , says Bacon ,
which are the swiftest in the course are nim

”
blest in the turn .
B ut the great evil o f every department o f
literature which deals in fiction is the habit ,
the imagination acquires of domineering over

sober j udgment .
” “
In time ,
says the great moralist ,
when
some particular train of ideas has fixed the

attention all other intellectual
, g r at ifi ca t io n s are
rej ected the mind in weariness
, , or leisure , re
curs constantly to the favourite conception and ,
fe asts on the lu scious falsehood , whenever she is

o ffended w ith the bitterness of truth . By de
grees the reign o f fancy is confirmed . S he
gro w s first imperious and in tim e despotic,
.
Then fiction begins to operate as reality false ,
Opinions fasten on the mind and life passes in

,
d reams of rapture or anguish .

1 22 LONGEV IT Y OF ME DI C A L A U T HOR S ,
lation of t he same author , fo r some time was in

the habit of doing Sixty lines a day ; and even
in his last illness , of revising on e hundred lines
daily . But of all literary labour that o f J ohn
so n appears the most stupendous .

‘ 2 In seven
”
years ,
to u se his own language , he sailed a
long and painful voyage round the world of the
”
E nglish language , and in that brief term
produced his dictionary . The similar F rench
performance occupied forty academician s nearly
as many years .
During the period that John son was thus

employed he found leisure to produce his
,
” “
tragedy to comple t e the
, R ambler , the Va
n it y of H uman Wishes , and several minor

performances . A t the later period h e speaks ,
o f having w ritten forty-eight octavo page s of
”
the L ife o f S avage in on e day and a part
,
of the night .
A N D M I S CELL A NEO U S W R IT ERS .
I labours as these if they do

, n ot shorten
e c alculated to make it wretched for ,
on d ria invariably follows close upon

1 24 LON G EV IT Y or
CH A PT E R x1 .
LONGEV IT Y OF POLE M I C A L A U T HO R S— PH I LO
L O G I ST S .
IN the list of polemical authors we find t he
longevity of those of fixed opinions on the

subj ect of religion greater by a hundred and
,
five years than that of authors of unsettled

,
sentiments on this important inquiry after truth .
The only wonder is that the ages of the former

,
hav e not furnished a still larger amount when ,
the different effects on health and life are taken

!
into account of Certainty of opinion on the

, ,
most important of all subj ects : of tranquillity

126 LONGEV IT Y or
cient learning and has ,

it s apex in a - clo u d that
Sheds no rain on the arid soil ben eath it
. .
The more we co ntemplate so Wonderful a

s tructure the greater m ust
,
. be o ur . disappoint
m en t if we fail to discove r its u tility and , t he
larger the su r face o v er wh ich it s shado w s are

projected the more mu st be questioned the
,
ad
v an tage o f the er roneous .ex p endit ure O f t ime

'
and labour that was nec es sary for the erection

o f such a -
I f C obbe tt should ev er deign to .
per use these volumes, he . will pardon o ur meta

phor for the sake of ‘
it s appli cat ion ; but none

can be m ore sensible Of the misfor tune of eu
titling an o
pin io n
'
o f the i n utility of any bran c h

of learning to the approbation of that gent le
man than we are ; but , nevertheles s we '
, ar e
inclined to qu e stion the adv antage o f a whole

l ife s ’
d evotion to the study;
'
o f t he . dead lan
gua ge s .
POLEM I C A L A U T HORS . 1 27
What goo d to science or society has

.
, to , ac
c r ue d P arr s profound knowledge f the

from ’
o
di l ects of G reece ? What o riginal works e en

a ,
v
on the subj ect o f his own pursuit have issued ,
from his pen ? A fe w tracts and sermons an d ,
“ ”
a n ew edition o f B ellen d en us , are his only
title to the remembrance of the next age .
L anguages are but the avenues to learning ,
and he who devotes his attention to the forma

tion o f the pebbles that lay along the road
will have little leisure for the consideration of
more important obj ects Whose beaut y or utility,
arrest the attention o f the general observer .
We have been carried away from the sub
jec t of the effects of sedentary habits to

which the pursuits that are carried on in Clois
ters of ancient learning are apt to lead ; bu t
in truth there remained little
,
to be sai d on the
subj ect . If such habits appear less inj uriou s
1 28 LONGEV IT Y OF POLEM I C A L A U T HOR S .
to health in this branch o f study than might

h ave been expec t ed it is only because memory
,
and not imagination industry and not

, en thu
s ias m , have to do with the pursuits of the

philologi st .
1 30 L O N G E V I TY OF MUS I C A L
m ore imagination the composer is able to put

into his music the more powerfully he appeals
,
to the feelings . S ensibility is the soul of mu
sic and pathos its most powerful attribute

, .
P ythagoras imag ined that music was the soul

of life itself ,
or that harmony was the sum total
of the faculties and the necessary result of the
,
concert of these faculties an d of the bodil

‘
, .
functions .
M usical composition then dem ands ext , ,
ord ina ry s ensibility an en t hu siastic i m agi nation

, ,
an ins tin c tive taste rather than deep thoug h t .
T he same qu alit ie s di fferently direc ted make

the poe t . LS it then to be
, , w o n d ered at that
,
we sh ould find the poe ts a n d the mus ical c om
pos ers Co nsid e rab l y s hort e r li v ed than the fo l .
lowe rs of all othe r learn ed o r s cientifi c pursuits ,
whose s ensibility is not exercised by their

t
s u d ies , who se imaginat ion s ar e n o t
. . we ar ied by
C OMPOSE R S S C U LP T ORS
, , &c . 1 31
exces s ive application and enthusiasm The term

“ ”
g en us irr i t abile deserves to be tran sferred
from the poetical to the m usical tribe ; for we
take it that an enr aged musician is a m uch

more common spe ctacle than an ir ritat ed har d .
and infinitely more rabid in his choler .
G enerally speaking musicians are the most

,
intolerant of men to on e another the most cap

,
tions the best humoured

, when fl at tered and ,
the w orst tempered at all other times . M usic ,
like lau danum , appears to soothe the senses

when u s ed in m o deration
.
,
but the continual
employment of . eithe r flurries and excites the
faculties and often renders the best natured
,
men in t he w orld , petulant ,

irritable and ,
In t he list of artists the sculptors and painters

have been placed apart for the purpo se of show
1 32 LONGEV IT Y OF MUS I C A L
ing the greater longevity of the former . The

united ages of both exceed th e poe t s amount ’
of life by no less than three hundred and thirty

t wo years — an ample indication o f the difference
of the influence o f the imaginati ve and the imi
t a t iv e art on heal th . M any we are aware
, ,
think that imagination enters as largely into the

purs uits of painting as into poetry . But if
,
such were the case sculpture might indulge in

,
the vagari e s and chimeras of fancy without

being oblig ed to hav e recourse to the centaurs
and satyrs of poetry for its monsters and paint ,
ing might not have had to borrow its most beau

tiful subj ects from the ferv id description of M a d
donnas and M agdalens in the monkish records

of the m iddle ages . I t has been truly Observed
by an intell igent traveller that ,
what the an
cient poets fancied in verse the sculptors formed

,
1 34 LONGEV IT Y or MUS I C A L
Opinion o f the inventive genius Of painting i s ,
that wonderful picture of the L ast Judgment ,
by M ichael Angelo . But the majesty and -
glory the terror

, an d despair that are depicted
,
in it are not invented but embod ied

, , . The o ri
g in al of each outline is in the S acred H istory ,
and o ur wonder is not more at the execution of

such a design than at t he bo ldness of the ge
niu s that
‘
ha d the courage to u ndertake it .
Imagination Is the power Which the artist i s

leas t necessitated to call into action ; j udgment
is the master excellence which is requisite to re
l and direct the minor qualities that are '
u at e
g
given by n ature , or acquired by experience .
G ood sen se and experience , says Burke ,
acting together find , o ut what is fit to be done

in e v ery work of art . P ainting in a word is
, ,
the adaption of poe try to the eye the , con ce n
t r a t ion of n atural im agery— the skilfu l com

COMPOSER S SCULP T OR S
, , &c . 1 35
bination in a limited space

, , of the i dea of in
fin it y , wi th the perceptio n of obj ects that are

visible a t a glance . M any o f the a ncient painters ,
it I S true were tolerable poets

,
. M ichael A n
gelo and S alvator R osa were good ones ; but it
does not follow that imagination is essential to
the production o f art . S ome of the most emi
nent lawyers wrote excellent verses S ir Thomas .
M ore Jo es Blackstone
, n , , E rskine, and C urran ,
had considerable talents for poetry . But poetry

has very little to do with la w ; neither has
it with Chemistry , and yet S ir H umphry
Davy has left effusion s of this kind behind
him which would not be discreditable to any
har d .
We m ay conclude with G oethe ,

“
there is
a di fference between the art of painting and
that of writing ; their bases may touch each
other but their summits are distinct and sepa
,
1 36 LONG EV IT Y , &c .
rate . A nd from the lists

ticed of the painters and poets
there is a Wide di fference be t wet
of an imitative art and an imagi

on health .
1 38 T HE L A S T MOMEN T S
mind in the last scene of all ? G enerally
speaking the infl uence of literature and science
,
over t he mind and the demeanor o f men is at

,
no period displayed such advantageas at that

to
of the close o f li fe . What medical man has at

t ended at the death -bed of the scholar ,
or the
studious man and has not found death divested
,
of hal f its terrors by the dignified composure

of the su fferer and his state,
on e of peace and
serenity compared with the abj ect condition of
,
the unenlightened mind in the same extremity ?

Those perhaps who relinquish life with the
, ,
most reluc t ance paradoxical , as it m ay appear

to be are to be found in the most op posite
,
grades o f society— those in the very highest and

lowest walks of life . In di fferent countries ,
likewise it is singular in what di fferent degrees

,
people are influenced by the fear o f eternity ,
and in What di fferent ways the pomp of death ,

OF MEN OF GEN I US . 1 39
t he pec uliar mode '
o f s epulture , reasonable
views of religion and terrifying superstitions
,
ffec t t he people f particular countries The

'
a o .
Irish who are certainly n o t deficient in physical

,
courage support bodily su ffering and encoun ter

, ,
death with less fortitude than the people of thi s

,
co untry . A G erman entertains hi s fate in his

,
dying moments more like a phi losopher than

,
a F renchm an . And , of all places in the

w orld , the capital of T urkey is it where we ,
have seen death prese nt the greatest terrors

'
.
,
and where life has been most unw illingly re
signed . The Ar abs , ou the other hand , p ro
fessing t he same reli gion as the Turks di ffer ,
fro m them wholly in this respect and meet ,
death with grea t er indifference than the humbler

c lasses of any other country M aho m ed an
’
,
or
C hristian . I t is truly surprising with w hat
apathy an A rab , i n ex t remity , w ill lay him down

1 40 T HE L A S T MOMEN T S OF
to die and with , what pertinacity the T urk

will cling to li fe — with wha t abj ect importunity
he w ill solicit the physician to save and pre
serve him .
In various epidemics in the E ast

~
, we have
had occasion to Observe the striking di fference
in the conduct of both in their last moments ,
and especially in the expedition of Ibrahim

P asha to the M orea when hundred s were dying
,
daily in the camp at S uda . There the haughty

M oslem went to the society o f his celestial
ho urie s like a miserable slave while the good
,
humour e d A rab went like a hero to his long

last home . The di fference in their moral qua- a
lit ies , and the ment al superiority of the E g yp
tian over the T urk , made all the distinction .
The result of the Observation o f many a

closing scene in various climes lead s to the ,
conclusion that death is Envisaged by t hose

1 42 T HE L A S T M OMEN T S OF
pall the waving plumes

,
— Were it n ot for these ,
and the revolting custom of heightening the

horrors of se pulture the formal mode
, of d o in g
violence to the feelings of the fr iends who stand
o v er the gravel death might be di v ested
,
o f half
its terrors and its approach even hailed as

,
a blessing by the maj ority of mankind —lby

those at lea st who are
, , w eary o f the world ,
w hatever portion of it they may be . I s it n ot
Johnson who has sai d there is probably more

,
pain in passing from youth to age than from ,
a
ge t o
P rofessor H ufeland whose ob servation s

,
on
this subj ect a re worth all the essays that have

lat ely obtained a temporary notoriety and that ,
t oo without any classical clap-traps or shre ds

and patches of ancient scholarship has well ,
obser v ed in his w ork on lon g e v ity , that many

fear death less than the operatio n of dyi n g .
M EN OF GEN I U S . 1 43
P eople (he says) form the most singular con

ce t i
p on o f the last struggle the separation
, o f
the soul from the body and the like , . B ut this

is all void o f foundation . No m an certainly
ever felt what death is ; and as insensibly as we
enter into life equally insensible do
, we leave it .
The be g inning and the end are here united .
M y proofs are as follows . F irst man can have

,
no sensation of dying ; for to die means nothing

, ,
more than to lose the vital po wer and it is the ,
v ital power which is the medium of co m m u
n c at io n
i bet ween the so ul and bod y . In pro
portion as the vital power d ecreases , we lose
the power o f sensation and of consciousness ,
and we cannot lose life withou t at the same

time , or rather before losing ,
o ur vital sensa
tion which requires the assistance
,
of the ten
d er e s t organs . We are taught also by ex e
p
ricuce that all those who ever passed through

,
1 44 T HE L A S T MOMEN T S OF
the first sta ge of death and were again brough t

,
to life ,
unanimously asserted that they felt
nothing of dying but sunk at once into a state
,
”
of in sensibility .
L et u s not be led into a mistake by the c on
l i
v u s ve throbs the rattling in the throat
, , an d
the apparen t pangs of death , which are e x
hibit e d by many persons when in a dying state .
These symptoms are painful only to the spec

t at o rs , and not to the dying , who are not
se nsible of them . The case here is the same
as if one from the dreadful contortions
, o f a
person in an epileptic fi t should form a , co n
elusion respecting his internal feelings : from

”
what affects u s so much he su ffers nothing , .
L et one al ways consider life as it really is , ,
a mean state which is not an obj ect it s elf but

, ,
a medium for obtai n ing an obj ect as the m ulti ,
fa rio us imperfections o f it su fficiently pro v e ;

1 46 T HE L A S T M OM EN T S or
will also te nd very much to allay the fear of

”
death .
There is one poin t connected with this su b

— the brightening up Of t he mind pr eviou sly
j ec t
to di ssolution ; or to u se the common ex pre s

,
sion ,
“
the lightness before de ath —o u whi ch ,
”
,
a fe w words remain to be sai d . The no ti on "
that dying people were favou r ed beyond other s ,

w ith a s piritu alized conception of things mot ,
only relating to time but likewi se to , e te rnity ,
was familiar to the ancients and was proba bly

,
borrowed by the Jews from t he Egypt ian s,

amongst whose descendants the word s an d ,
wishes of a dying m an are still r ega rded as
manifestations o f a spirit of W is d om th at has ,

risen s uperior to the weaknesses and passion s
of humanity . The doctrine however share d
, ,
”
,
the fat e of all similar Opinions that are specious .
w ithout being solid and entertaining without

,
M EN OF GEN I US
-
.
‘
1
47
'
being tru e : i t was forgot ten till revived by

A ret aeu s ; an d from his time to that of S ir H .
H alford million s,
of people were b orn an d
b uried , an d no in d ications of a prophetic spirit
exhibited by the dying , or recorded of them ,
till the learned baronet prod uced his E ssay on
the s ubj ect . In truth this lighting up

, of the
min d amount s to nothing more than a plea
s ur ably excited con dition of the mental fac ul
ties , following perhaps a state

‘
o f previous
'
torpor , an d continuing a few hours , or O ften
ti me ia H eht s ,
s ”
before dissolution This rousing .
'
of the m ind is pr obably prod uced y
b the
‘
u p
s t i mul u s of dar k venou s bloo d circulating
thr ough the ar t eri al vessels of the brain in ,
con s eq uence of the imperfect oxygenation of
the bloo d in the lungs whose delicate air-cells

,
become im p eded by the deposition Of mucu s

on the surface which there is , n ot sufficient
H 2
1 48 T HE L A S T MOM EN T S
;
'
or
energy 1
in t he abso rbents to remove and , hence
ari ses the rattling in the throat whi c h commonly

!
pre cedes dea t h . m n an
The e ffec t o f this new stimulus o f i fd ar k s
c oloured blood in the arterial vessels appe ars ,
strongly to resemble the exhilarating e ffect s !i f
opium inasmuch as physical pain is lull e d,

, t he
sensations soothed and the imagination exalt ed . .
L ong-forgotten pleasures are recalled Old fa , s
’
n I iliar faces are seen in the mind s e
ye, an d
well-remembered friends are comm uned wit h ,
and the imaginative power of gi vin g a re al

presence to the shadowy reproducti ons f me
o i
mory is busily employed and a sort of deliriu m , ,
or rather of mental exaltation , is t he l co n se
I n t he Q uart e r ly R ev
. i ew for Ap r il , t he e x pl i
an at o n of
t he ph e no m en a h e re gl an c e d at is s en s ibly an d in t e llig i blv
gi d ih d g
l
v en , an d m ay be r e fe r er to w s a van ta e for lar g er fn
form at i on on t h i ubj
s s ec t .
1 50 T HE L A S T MOMEN T S
'
’ ‘
or
t hat he would die On a T hursday but the ,
prediction Was t accom plished

'
no .
S ome o f the following brief accounts of t he

Closing scene of men o f geniu s may tend
, to
illustrate the pre c eding observati ons and , to
Show ho w far a predom inant passion or favou rite

pursuit may influence the mind even at '
t he
latest hour of li fe . I n nearly e v ery inst an ce ,
”
the ruling passion strong in death is foun d
to be displayed .
R ou sse au , wh en dying, ordered his attend

ants to plac e him before the window that he ,
might once more behold his garden , an d bid

adieu to nature .
A ddison s dying s p eec h to his

’
so n - i l
n - a w was
’
characteristic enough o f the man ,

who was
accustom e d to inveigh ag ainst the follies of
mankind though not altogether free from some

,
”
of the frailties he denoun c ed . Behold , said
MEN OF ,
GEN I U S .
151
he to the dissolute young

.
n oble man ,
what tranquillity a C hristian can die

gR os c o m m o n uttered at the moment he ex
pir ed , two lines of his o wn version of ,

“
Dies
”
irae .
.: H aller died feeling his pulse and when he ,
found it almost gone turning , ,

to his brother
physician said , , M y fri nd e , t he art ery ceases
”
to beat , and died .
P etrarch was found dead in his li brary ,
leaning on a book
Bead di e d in the act of dictating .
H erder closed his career writing an od e to
the Deity hi s pen , on the last line .
Waller died repeating some lines of V irgil .
M etastasio who would never su ffer the word

,
death to be uttered in his presence at last ,
so far triumphed over his fears that , , a fter r e

ce iv n i g the last rites of religion in his ,
en t hu
1 52 THE . L A ST MOMEN T S OF
i
s as m
‘
he burst forth into a stanza o f religious

poetry .
L ucan died reciting some ver s es of his o wn
P harsalia .
A lfi e ri, the day before he died , wa s per

s ua d ed to see a priest ; and when he came he ,
said to
'
him with great affability ,

“
H a e the v
kindness t o look in t o-morrow— I trust death will ‘
”
wait four-and-twenty hours .
N apoleon , when dying, and in t he . ac t o f
s peaking to the clergyman reproved his seep ,
tical physician for smiling in these words ,
Y ou are above those weaknesses but what ,
can I do ? I am neither a philosopher n or a

physician ; I believe in G od and am Of the
, re
lig io n of my father : I t is not every one who

”
can be an atheist . The last words he uttered
-H ead A rmy — evin c ed c lea r l
y e n ou
gh
what sort Of visions were passing over his m ind
at the moment of dissolution .

1 54 T HE L A S T MO M EN T S or
t wo days before he died says he never saw a , ,
scene o f so m uc h vanity in his life ; he was

sitting up in his bed contemplati ng the plan he
,
wa s mak ing for his o wn monument .
Wycherly when dying had his young wife

, ,
brough t to his be d -Side , and having taken her

hand in a very solemn manner said he had but , ,
one request to make of her and that was that , ,
she would never marry an Old man again .
There is every reason to believe tho ugh it is ,
not stated in the account that , so re asonable a

request could not be denied at such a moment .
”
Bolingbroke , says S pence , in his last ill
ness desired to be brought to the table Where we
w ere sit t ing at di n ner his appearance was such
that we all thought him dying and , M rs . Ar
but hn o t involuntarily exclaimed , This is quite
”
an E gyptian feast On another authority he
is repre se n t ed as being overcome by terrors and
ME N ENI U S ” 1 55
'
: or G .
excessive pa ssion in his last moments and after

“
, ,
one of his fits of choler being ov erheard by

,
S irH rry M ildmay complaining to himself

a ,
and saying W hat will my p oor soul undergo

,
”
fo r all these things ?
Keats , a little be fore he died when his ,
friend asked him ho w he did replied in a low

,
v oi c e ,
“
Bet t er my friend
, . I feel the daisies .
”
growing over me .
In D I s raeli s
’ ’
admirable work on M en of
Geniu s from which some

,
”
of the preceding ac
coun ts are taken many others are to be found , ,
tending to illustrate more forcibly perhaps tha n , ,
any of t ho se in st an ce s we have given the sooth

'
,
,
ing , an d , if the wor d may be allo wed the , be
ni n
g influence of literary habits on the tran
quillity o f the individual in his latest mo
ments .
1 56 T H E I MPRO V D ENCE
I
CHA P T E R XI V .
THE I MPRO V ID ENCE OF L IT ER A RY M EN .
IF the misfortunes of men of geni us wer e nu
connected with their in fi r m itie s, any notice -

o f
them however brief would be irrelevant

, , to the '
subj ect of these pages . In literat ure itself ,
there surely is nothi n g to favour impr ovid ence ,
or to unfit men for the active d ut ies of life ; but

in the habi t s which literary m en contract fr om
excessive applicat ion to t heir pursuit s there is ,
a grea t deal to di squali fy the s tudious man for

those pe tty details Of economy and pru d enc e ,
1 58 T HE I MPROV ID ENC E
’
in mos t of the newspape rs of t he day , n ot man y

m onth s ago , on the occasion of the appearan ce
of the life of a Celebrated bard in which the ,
biographer had unfortunately Spoken of the

poetic temperament as on e ill-cal culated to
favour the c ultivation o f the social and domestic
ties . M any men o f geniu s have unquest ionably
been every thing that men should be in all th e
relations of pri v ate life ; therefore with thos e ,
O utrageous morali sts there was no , rea So n why

all men o f genius should n ot be pat tern s of ex
cellen ce to ll good citizens husba nds fathe rs ‘
a , , ,
and e conomical managers O f private affai rs . No
reason can be given why they should n ot be

s uch . We only know that such the maj ori t y
,
of the m unfortunately are not ; and indeed in , ,
’
the varied distribution o f nature s gifts when ,
we generally find th e absence of one excellenc e

a t oned for by the possession of another it would ,
OF L IT E R A RY MEN . £59
be in vai n to expect a combination of all such

advantages in the sam e ind ivid ual . N ature
can not afford to be so profu sely lavish even to
her favourites . I t is somewhat sing ular that ,
those instances of pre-eminent geniu s , a cc o m
p anied by well-regulated conduct and dom esti c

virtues which are adduced in Opposition to the
,
notion that the tem perament of genius exerts an

unfavourable infl uen ce on the habits of private
li fe are
, of persons who never took upon the m
the ties o f husb ands or o f fathers . A nd had
they done so wh o knows what their conduct
,
might have been in these rela tions ? N ewton ,

G alileo , M ic hael
.
A ngelo , L ocke , H ume P ope , ,
never married ; neither did Bacon , Voltaire , and

many other il lustriou s men who either dis ,
trusted their o wn fitness for the married state ,
or were afraid to stake their tranquillity on the

hazard o f the m atrimonial die .
1 60 TH E I M P R O V I D E N GE
Wha t ever doubt t here may be , W h ether

the m an who liv e s s ibi et m us ts in hi s s t ud y ,
and n ot in society who c ommunes wit h form er

,
g s
a e , an d not with the events which are passi ng
around him is eminently qualified for the (his
,
ti e s and o ffi ces of married life it cannot , be d eg,
nied that his habits and the tenden cy of his,
pursuits are ill-calculated to make

, him a pro s
vident or a thrifty man .
In all ages and in all countries pove rty has ,
been the patrimony o f the M uses . John son ,
G oldsmith F ielding and But ler

, , , co m me need ,
their literary ca reer in garrets from whic h; , , no
doubt they had as unim peded a prospec t

, of t he
workhou se as the summits of P arnassus are sai d
to afford . E v en A ddison wrote his C ampaig n
in a garret in the H aym rket a . C amoens died

in an alm s-house and fiftee n years afterwards
,
had a splendid monument ere c ted to his m e z

] 62 T HE
'
I M P RO V ID ENCE
M use s ‘
alo n e were left solitary probably , be l
cause the y had no portions

’
H elicon was for .
saken o f al l suitors and C allio pe only con ti

,
"
n ue d to be a m aid because she
,
had no dower .
P etronius he narrates knew a scholar by

, , t he
”
mea nnes s of his apparel '
. The re c ame , saith

he , by chance into my company a fellow not ,
ver y spruce to look on ,

whom I could perceiv e ,
by that note alone to be a scholar whom , , co m
m o n ly all ri ch men hate . I asked him what he

was ? and he ans w ered — a poet . I dem anded ,
why he was ragged ? he told -me thi s kind of
”
learn ing never m ade any m an rich .
”
“
A ll which o ur ordinary students , says Bur
ton ,
“
right well perceiving in the Universi t ie s ,
ho w unprofitable are these poetical and philo so
phic al pursuits of theirs ap ply themselves in all

, ,
haste , to more co m modious and lucrative pr o fe s

sions T hey are no longer hee d ful of knowled ge
.
or f L I TE R A B Y ME N . 1 63
he who can tell his money hath arithmetic ,
en ough : he is a true geometrician who can , m ea
s ure a good fortune to him self : a perfect astro

loger , who can cast the ri se and fall o f others an d ,
t urn their errant motions to his o wn a d v antage :

the best Optician who can reflect the beam s
,
o f
a great man s favour and cau se them to shine

’
,
upon him self .
u E n eas S ylvius says he knew many sch olars

“
in his time excellent well-learn ed men but
, ,
so rud e , so silly , that they had no common

civilit y , n or knew ho w to manage either their
'
o wn affairs , or those o f the public .
"“
I They are generally looked down u pon ,
con t in ue s B ur t on , account f their car

'
on o
ria bec ause they cannot ride a horse which

g e, ,
every clown c an manage ; salute and court a

gentlewoman ; carv e prope rly at table ; cringe
and make con
gi e s, which every com m on swasher
1 6 4: rn mm r a ov mc n
”
can '
do . 1 They cannot truly vaunt m uehl ifi
’
their acco mpli shm en t s in this way ; they b el on g

to that r ace , of on e
'
of whom P liny gave t he
descri pt io n H e is yet a scholar ; th an which
kind of m en t here is nothing so sim pl e ,
so s ia
”
cere and none better
, .
l' i'im l
-
But the mi s eri es of G rub-street are no lo n g e n
known well-fed authors may be daily e rr

at u m!
tared in the R o w and no wri t er

,
”
of any re pute
perambulates the t own at least withi n a ,
m od o l
'
f
Bond-street in a thread bare coat In s ho m,

‘
- .
,
there is a general opinion that liter ature has e fi
late become a lucrative employment ; that God
has m ollifi ed the hearts of bookselle rs hear ts,”

which in bye-gone times had become like th at?
of L eviathan firm as a stone yea hard as
, ,
’
a
piece of nether mill-stone .

”
It is commonly imagined that be cau se it ,

ha s
become the fas hion for peo ple of rank to write

1 66 T HE I M P RO V I DE N C E
iI
d eclin ed by on e whose promises may havé
prov ed the bit t er brea d o f disappointment , an d ’
w ho never may ha ve , or know what it is to feel?

that sickness of the heart which ari ses from h ope
deferred O r perhaps the poor author may try his
.
fate els e wher e a nd his heart may die away Wit hih
'
him while he is kept waiting in an ante-room

,
”
for the customary period o f solitary c on fin el
subdue the ar den t

'
ment that is su fficient

,
to
expec tations o f an author before he is admit t ed

,
”
to the presence f “
the g r eat invi sible B ut
'
o .
when at length his form is revealed to t he
? l
of fashiod
’
author s eye emerg ing from a pile
,
‘ '
able publications , to be frozen to d eath by
inches by the cold civility of his smile , to be

”
asked in bated breath and bondsman key ,
for the nature o f the influence that is to push

the book and in default
, of an aristocratic name ,
and a fashionable acquaintance to be bowed ,

or . L IT E R A RY M EN .
1 67
like a ma n da rin to the oute

r door is what he has ,
to
expect , an d t o be assur ed all the tim e that the
w ork is a very good work in its way but that ,
a uthors who would be read m u s t hav e titles as

,
well as their books , an d that nothing short of

a barone t cy will go down in a title-page .
If it be imagined there are no authors

‘
n ow
a- days pining as in former times in

, ,
w ant and
wretchedness , becau se their destitution is not
so m uch obtruded on the public as it formerly
wa s wont to be little is the condition
,
o f a vast
portion of t he literary men of L ondon kno wn .
Because s hame m ay not allo w them to parade

th eir poverty before the eyes of their fellow
m e n in . R eg e n t S treet or Hyde P ark because ,
their seedy garments and atten uated forms are

not to be seen in public places forsooth they ,
exist n ot alas they are to be found

elsewhere and their familiar companions are
,
'
still but t oo frequently

1 68 T HE I M I
P RO V D E N CE
P alle n t es m bi
or , luc t us , c ur ze q ue labor q ue
Et m u et s , et m ale s uad a fa m es , e t t u pi g
r s e e s t as
Te rribile s iuf m
v s or a
ts .
But it would be absurd as well as unj ust to

, ,
a t tribute the m isfortunes of literary men to the

conduct of those whose bu siness it is to cater for
the literary taste of the public . If authors
have to complain it is of the system on which
,
the book trade is carried on , and not of the in
d iv id uals who are employed in it : generally

speaking it m ust be
, ac k n o wleg ed , men more
liberal and more honourable are not to be met
w ith .
I t cannot be denied that literary men are t oo
often desirous to cover their o wn imprudence by

taxing the world with neglecting merit by ,
railing at F ortune for the blind distribution of

her gift s . M any of the E nglish poets ,
”
says
G oethe , a fter spending their early years in
1 70 T HE I M I
P R O V DE N C E
sees a rich booby wallowing in wealth for ,
ge t ting s uch wealt h is acquired or retained by

such pal try arts as he disdains to prac t i se : if
he refuse to pay the price why expect the pur ,
cha s e ? We should consider this world as a ,
great mart of commerce wher e we al th ease , , ,
fame and knowled ge are exposed to

, , o ur view .
O ur industry and labour are so much ready

money , which we are to lay o ut to the bes t
advantage . E xam ine , choose , or rej ect the
wares bu t stan d to your own j udgment and do
, ,
not like children

, , when you have purch ased
'
one thing repi ne that , y o

u do not possess
another ,
which you did n ot purchase . If you
would be rich you must put your heart against
,
the M uses and be content t feed your under

, o
standing with plain and household truths .
Y ou m ust keep on in one beaten track without ,
turning to the right hand o r the left . But I can

or L I TE R A RY M EN . 1 71
not submit to drudgery li ke this -I feel a spirit

’
above it .
’
Tis well to be above it then ,
only do n ot repine that y ou are n ot rich .
Is knowledge the pearl of pri ce ? y ou see

that t oo may be purchased by steady applica
tion and long solitary hours of study and
,
’
reflection . But says the man of letters
, ,
‘
is it
n ot a hardship that many an illiterate fellow ,
who cannot construe the motto on his coach ,
shall raise a fort une and make a , figure ,
while I hav e li ttle more than the common

necessaries of life
“
Was it in order to raise a fortune you
consumed the sprightly hours of youth in
study and retirement ? W a s it to be rich
t hat you gr ew pale over the midnight lamp ?
Y ou have then mistaken your path ,
and ill
employed your industry . What reward have
’
I then for all my labours ? What reward !
I 2
1 72 T HE I M I
P R O V DE N C E
A large comprehensive soul well purged ,
from v ulgar fears and perturbations and pre

, ,
j udices able to interpret the works of man

,
and G od . A rich , flourishing , cultivated

mind pregnant with inexhaustible stores
,
of
entertainment and reflection . A perpetual spring

of fresh ideas and the conscious dignity
,
of
superior intelligence . G ood hea ens ! and what

v
reward can you ask beside ?

If a mean dirty fellow should have amassed
wealth enough to buy half a nation is it a ,
reproach upon the economy of P ro idenc e?

v
N ot in the least . H e made himself a mean

dirty fello w for that very end H e has paid .
his health his conscience his liberty for it and

, , , .
will y ou envy him his bargain ? Will you

hang your head and blush in his presence ,
because he outshines you in show and equip

ag e ? L ift your head with a noble con fidence ,
1 74 A P P L I CA T I O N or
CH A P T E R X V .
APP L I C T I O N OF
A THE PR ECE D I NG O R SE R
V A TI O N S .
T HE history of men o f genius affords abun

dant proof that the habits of literary men
are unfavourable to health and that constant ,
application to those studies , whose acknow

ledged tendency is to exalt the in t ellect and to ,
enlarge the faculties of the mind are never ,
t heles s productive of consequenc e s similar to

t hose which ari se fro m physical in fi r m it ie s .
The conversation of a poet ,

”
says Gold
“
m ith , is that of a man of sense while his
'
ac tions are those o fa fool ”

.
T HE PRE CE DI N G O B S E RVA T I O N S 1 75
There is no reason why folly should emanate

from poetry ; but we have reason enough to
know that many mental in fi rm it ie s arise fro m
s edentary habits and their accompanying evils
yet in the face of modern biography it requires ,
a little courag e to assert that bodily disease has

an influence over the feelings temper or sen , ,
s ibilit y Of studious men and th at it gi ves a

,
colour to character which it is Often

, im po s
sible to discriminate by any other light than that

o fm e d ic al philosophy . I n the following pages
we purpose to illustrat e thi s opinion by , t e
ferring to th e lives of a fe w of those indi

v id ual s , the splendou r of whose career has
brought not only their frailties bu t their
, , p ecu
liar it ies into public notice and by pointing out

, ,
in each instance those deviations from health

,
which deserve to be taken into account in fairly

considering t he li t erary character .
1 76 POPE .
The most frequent di sorders of literary m en
are dyspepsia and hypochondria and in ex ,
treme cases , t he ter m ination of these m al adies is

in some cerebral d isord er y either mania epi ,
lepsy , or paralysi s , and these we intend to

notice in the order of their succession in the
follo wing brief sketches Of the physical in
fi r m it ie s Of P ope, Johnson , Burns , C o wper ,
Byron and lastly S cott

, , , , in whose case the
absence of the ordinary errors of genius may
,
be asc ribed in a great measure to well-regulated

habits which certa inly were not those of the
,
”
others above mentioned .
POPE .
'
about thre e quarters - o f a century the
laboured under t he d elusion that P ope
1 78 POPE .
’
a brother bard s disparaged fame and he laid ,
about him like one who was accustomed to

spare no critic in his rage and no rev iewer in ,
his anger .
The distinction of being attacked by such an

adversary was the only advanta ge to be gained
by the contest ; but this advantage was pur
chased at the expense O f considerable punish
ment . The controversy w as a ho t o n e, and
the fame Of the in di vidual who was the subj ect
of the quarrel had to pass through an ordeal
of fire ; but ph oenix-like the character , o f the
po et rose triumphant from the flames al beit ,
the conduct of t he man came forth not alto ,
gether unscathed by th e c on flag ra t ion . N ot

’
even Byron s genius co uld re s cue the memory
of P ope from the Obloquy Of the long-forgotten
e rrors that had b e en raked up by the in d efa
t ig able indus t ry Of his Opponent ; for in

‘
at
P OPE . 1 79
tem p t ing to p alliate those error s the bodily ,
in fi r m it ie s of the victim of the controversy

were overlooked , and no satisfactory ex l
pa
nation was given of that peevishness of tem
per and waywardness
, of humour which , uh
questionably tarnished the character of this

favourite— we had almost sai d this spoiled child ,
of genius .
The following references to his habits and

temperament may probably throw some little
light on the nature Of his failings and tend ,
e v en to remove the impression which the ani

m ad v er s io n s o f M r Bowles may have
.
pro
d uce d . By natural deformity , or accidental

” “
distortion , we are told by Johnson , the
vital functions o f P ope were so much d iso r
dered that his life

,
wa s a long disease . The
d eformity alluded to arose from an affection o f
the spine contracted in infancy and

, , to which
1 80 POPE .
the ext reme delic acy of his constitution is to be

attributed .
When it is recollected that the ner v es whi ch

supply the abdomin al v iscera with the energy
that is essenti al to their functions are deri v ed ,
from the Spinal column the cau se Of the , di so r
der of his digesti v e powers during the whole of
his life is e asily conceived . A s be advanced in

life the original complaint ceased to m ake any
further progress and its e ffects
,
on his consti
t ut ion might have been removed by due atten ‘
tion to regimen and exercise ; but instead of

these ,
acti v e medicines and stimulating diet
w ere the means he constantly employed O f tem s
po r aril
y palliating the exhausti on and , o bv ia t
ing the excitement consequent on excessive

m en t al
'
a
ppli ca t ion . N one o f his biographers ,
indeed allude to his hav ing su ffered from indi

,
gestion ; and it is even poss ible that he might

1 82 POPE .
real nature Of the m alady but only some of its ,
m ultiform symptom s O f all these designations

.
,
indigestion has been the most ha ckn ied title ,
and it is in my Opinion the most erroneous

, , .
The very worst forms o f the disease— form s in

which the body is tortured for years and the ,
mind ultimately wrecked Often exhibit , no sign

or p oof of in di g estion in the ordi ary s nse of
r , n e
the word the appetite being good the digestion

, ,
”
apparently complete .
The fact is that where pai n is not the cha

,
r ac t e r Of the disease the attention Of the patient

,
is carri e d to the symptom s in organs, perhaps ,
the remotest from the cause ; and in this parti a
on lar disorder the patient is seldom or ever

sensible o f pain in the actual seat Of it .
We are told by P ope s biographer

’
,
“
that
the indulgence and accommod ation that his
sickness required had taught him
,
all t he un
P OPE . 1 83
pleasing and u n soci al qualities of a valetudinary

And in v ariou s other passages we are
informed that he wa s irascible capricious pee
, ,
v ish and resentful ; Often wanton in his attacks

, ,
and unj ust in his censures ; that be delighted in

artifice in his intercour s e with mankind so that ,
h e could h ardly d rink tea without a stratagem ;

that his cun ning sometimes descended to such
petty parsimony as writing his compositions on
the backs of letters by which perhaps he migh t
,
have saved fiv e shillings in five years (a crime,
against n y by the
s t at io
gfr
way which h e shared
, ,
in common with S ir Walter S cott ) that al ,
though he occasion ally gave a splendid dinner ,
an d was enabled to do so on an income Of about

eight hundred a year , his entertainment was
often scanty to his fri ends and he ,

was c apa
ble Of setting a single pint upo n the table and ,
saying to his guests when he retired , G entle fi

1 84 POPE .
men , I leave you to yo ur wine . We ar e told ,
moreover that his satire had often in it more

,
of petulance personality and malignity than

, , ,
Of moral design or a desire to refine the public

,
taste .
These are serious charges against the j ustice

and amiability of his character ; and probably
there is a great deal Of truth in them but they ,
only apply to his character not to his di spo ,
s it io n .
There is a paradox in the conduct o f literary
men which makes it necessary to draw a dis

,
tinction betwee n their actions , and their sen ti

ments between the author with a pen in his
,
hand and the man without it ; between the

,
character that is formed by the world and the ,
disposition which is only kno wn by private

friends .
Johnson has pictured P ope as he really a

p
~
1 86 POPE .
ing those letters for e ffect which he published

”
by subterfuge ? Who that has Observed
, ho w
the vacillating conduct Of the dyspeptic invalid

imitates the vagaries o f this proteiform mal ady ,
can wonder at his capriciou sness , or be sur

prised at the anomaly of bitterness on the
tongu e and benevolence in the heart
, , of the
same individual .
But P ope s biting sarcasm

’
was only aimed at
his enemi e s . Byron little cared whe ther friend
or foe was the victim Of his spleen ; those be
best love d in the world were those who su ffered

m ost from the bitterness Of his distempered
feelings . To read those inj uriou s lines on
R ogers, that have lately appeared , and
which never ought to have been dragged into
public notice i s to fancy the malignity
,
o f By
ron greater even than M ilton s which’

, (we are
falsely told ) was s ufli cien t to m ake hell grow
darker at it s scowl .
POPE .
1 87
But whose , in this instance , was the greater

malignity of the t wo — the writer of productions ,
penned in , all probability , under the excite

ment Of ment al i rritability and bodily infirmity ,
’
without a moment s forethought , or an aim , or
an Obj ect beyond the miserable gratification

, of
seeing on paper the severest thing he could say

of his best friend : an exercise of melancholy ,
to try ho w far poetic ingenuity could exa

g
gerate the foibles of those he knew to be exempt

from grave defects— written without p r e m ed i
t at ion , and never intended for publicity ;— or the

deep deliberate malignity Of the literary j ack al
, ,
that panders to the rage o f the noble-hearted

lion and then prowls about hi s lair and steal s
, ,
a wav , when the creature sleeps the provender ,
Of the m angled d isj ec t ae m e m br i hum a n it a t zs ,

’
for the “
0 mm v or a n t ia et c
homi i d a g ula
”
Of
the savage communi ty of his o wn spe cies ?
1 88 POPE .
Who might n ot wish that a whip were

”
placed in every honest hand , to pu n ish the
O ffender , who reckless o f t he feelings of the
living an d regardless
, o f the fame and honour
O f the dead dragged those e ffusions into li ght
,
which were born in the Obscurity of the study ,
and never meant t o be sent beyond its precincts ?

NO malignity is comparable to his for whom ,
there is no sanctity in the grave in friendship ,
no respect and no restr ai nt on the

, p en that
perpetuates a slander that had otherwise bee n
forgotten !
But what have the failings of L ord Byron ,
or the er fi d of his friends to do with o ur

p y ,
subj ect — little more indeed, than to break up

,
t he monotony o f t he ta sk of recording the in fi r
m it ies o f his brother bard . That these had

their origin in his dyspeptic malady ,
we have
little doubt .
1 90 POPE .
any more than the little : and if so , we may

reasonably conclude th at there are other things
besides conscience ’
which make cowards of
u s all and that by a temporary gastric irrita
tion many an enterprize o f vast pith and mo
ment has had its current turned a way and
’ ‘ ’
lost the name f action ’

O .
The philo s opher and the metaphysician who ,
know but little of these reciprocities of mind

and matter hav e drawn many a false conclu
,
sion from and erected many a baseless hypo

,
thesis on the actions of men

,
. M any a happy
thought has Sprung from an empty stomach :
many a terrible and merciless edict has gone
forth in consequence of an irritated gastric
nerve .
Thus he al th , continues the author we

hav e j ust quoted , may m ake the same man a
hero in the field who m d y spepsia may render
,
”
imbecile in the cabinet .
POPE . 1 91
I t was under the influence of this m alady

that P ope s better j udgment was occasionally
’
warped , and that his feelings for the time , ,
swayed to and fro with his in fi r m it ie s . O n no
other suppo sition can the anomalies in his cha

r ac t e r be reconciled . Both O f his early biog ra
pher s admi t that his writings especially his ,
letters were at variance

,
w ith his conduct ; they
exhibit we are told by Johnson a distaste
, , o f
life a contempt
,
o f death , a perpetual and un
clouded e ffulgence Of general benevolence and

”
particular affection ; but it is easy , he adds ,
to despise death , when there is no danger and ,
to glow with benevolence when there is nothing

to be given .
But surely it is not so very heinou s an Offence

against the epistolary statute of sincerity to ,
’
assume a virtue , even when we have it
n ot and Johnson himself e v en questioned
, ,
1 92 POPE .
the truth of the common Opinion , that he

who writes to his friend lays his bosom Open
,
”
before him . V ery fe w, he says , can boast of
hearts which they dare lay Open to themselves ;
and certainly what we hide from oursel v es we
, ,
do not show to o ur friends . In the eagerness

of conversation the first emotions Of the mind
often burst out before they are considered but ,
a friendly letter is a calm deliberate perform ,
ance in the cool of leisure in the stillness

, , of
solitud e; and surely no man sits dow n to de

r ec ia t e , by design his o wn character By
p ,
.
whom can a man wish to be thought so much

better than he is than by him whose kindness
,
he desires to gain or keep ? E ven in writing to

”
the world there is less restraint .
But though his letters are filled with those

ordinary topics of literary correspondence a ,
sen se of the worthlessness o f his o wn produc

1 94 POPE .
Of his h abits and condition about t he mid dle of

his life . H is constitution ,
”
he says , which
was or
g in ally feeble became, n o w so d e bili tat ed
that he stood in perpetual need of female at
tendance ; an d so g reat his sen sib ility of

cold that he wore a kin d
, doublet under a
shirt Of very coarse warm linen . When he rose
he was invest e d in a bodice made of stiff can
vass being sc arcely able
,
to hold himself erect
till it was laced , an d he then put on a flannel
waistcoa t . H is legs w re e so slender that he ,
enlarged their bulk with t hree pairs of s t Ockin g s ,
w hi ch were drawn on and O ff by the maid ; for

he was not able to dress or undress himself and ,
”
he neither went to bed nor rose without help .
This extraordinary necessity for artificial warmth

was an evident in dication of the defi ciency Of
nervous en ergy ; an d wha t could be expected

from the prostration o f m ental
‘
and bodily
POPE . 1 95
power , the inevitable consequence o f such a

miserable condition o f the system but , ir rit abi
lit y of temper peevi shne s s and petulance ?

, , It
”
is said , says Dr James John son
.
, an d I be
lieve w ith j ustice that an infant never cries

,
withou t feeli ng some pain .
The same observation might be extended to

maturer years and it might be safely asserted
,
that the temper is never un u s uall ir rit able

y h
without some moral

‘
or physical cause— and

m uch more frequently a physical cau se than is
suspect ed . A man s temper may undoub te dly
’
be so ured by a train of mor al circumstances ,
but I believe that it is m uch more frequently

rendered irritable by the e ffects Of those m or al
cau ses on his corporeal organs and functions .
The moral cause ma kes its first impression on

the br ain the organ
, Of the mind . The organs
o f digestion are those disturbed sympathetically
K 2
1 96 POPE .
and r e act on the brain and thus the rec i ro

p
Cal a c t io n an d r e- action f the t wo system s f
'
o o
organ s on each oth er pr oduce a ho st '
of e ffect s ,
moral as well as physical by , which the temper

”
is broken and the health im paired
, ,
H ead ache - was the urgent sym ptom which

P ope constantly complained
.
o f, and this he Wa s
in the habit o f lie v in g by inhaling the steam

'
re
c o eive on wh at
'
Of co ffee . It is difficult to n c
pri nciple this remedy could alleviate his su ffer

ings ; but from the manner in which he a
gg ra
v at e d t hem by improper diet it is very proba ,
ble that his remedy was n o better than his re
gimen . It appears that like all dy s peptic men

, ,
he was fond of e v ery thing that was not fit for

him . H e wat s oo indulgent to his appetite ,
”
“
says his biographer ; he lov ed meat highly sea
s on ed, and if he sat down to a variety of dishes ,
he would o ppres s his stomach by repletion and

1 98 POP E
fusion and giddiness after application to study ,
or excess in diet those , p remonitory symptom s

of d y s pe ps ia, he
'
a ear s
pp to have looked u pon as
his ori gi nal disease whereas the stomach was
,
the seat Of his di sord e r, and the affection Of the

head only sympathetic wi th it . Y et it must be
admitted that when literary men
, ar e the sub
of
jec t s t his
disorder that it is very oft en ,
exce edingly diffi cult to determine whether the

’
head or the stom ach is primarily aflec t e d but

in whichever o f them is its origin , so immediate
is the influence O f the on e on the other that , t he
treatment is not m aterially embarras se d by o ur
uncert ainty Of the primary seat Of t he di sease .
I t is the nat u
.
re of par t s sympathetically af
fe c t e d to become disordered in their functions ,

'
rather than organically diseased at least it is a

considerabl e period before any a iat ion
lt e '
of
structure in a sym p t omatic disorder takes

POPE .
1 99
place .
The interval between the t wo results is
occupied by a long train Of anomalous ills ,
which are generally denominated nervous .

The
term is vague and unmeaning enough for all
t he purposes of nosology . I t im plies a host Of
su fferings which sap the strength and sink the

spirits of the invalid and this hydra-headed
,
malady may continue fo r years an incubu s on
his hap piness , which utterly destroys not

health , but renders valetudinarianism a sort
Of middle state Of existence be tween indis
position and di sease . The symptomatic affe c
tion Of the head only becomes an organic

disease when the long continued cause has
,
-
given it such power that the effec t acquires the

force of a first cause in its influence on an
organ previously weakened or predi sposed to
di se ase . I t is then easily conceived how the
simple hea d-ache in the case, of P ope , c on
2 00 POPE .
tin n ed for years symptomat ic of a disorder

O f the stomach aggravated by mental exci t e
,
ment and impro per di et ; till the disturbance of

the function s of the brain ultimately debi
lit a t e d that organ and left it no longer able
,
to resist the effects of the constant exercise

Of the mental faculties . The result of such
long continued
- disturbance O f the cerebral
functions there is generally great reason
, to
apprehend ,
will be either alteration in the
structure s oftening of its substance or e ffusion
, ,
serous or sanguin eou s .
There is great reason to believe th at one O f
these terminations took place in the case of

P ope several years before his death as it was ,
found to have done in the case of S wift and more ,
rec ently in that of Scott . E ven when P ope w as
apparently in the enj oyment Of tolerable health ,
he had evident symp t oms o f pressure on the

20 2 P OPE .
years rendered his existence bur t hen sorne to

himself and others ; his i irrit abilit y increased
-
with his in fi rm it ie s , an d the pe vi shne
e ss of d is
ease was agg ravated by the unk indness and

u nfeeling conduct of the wom an who had been
his c ompanion and attenda nt for many years .
The frequent expres sion of his weariness of
life hardly deserves the su s picion Of affectation

which John son e ntertained o f its sin cerity .
S urely there must have been no little inherent

melancholy in the tem pe ramen t Of a man who ,
’ “
in John son s o wn words , by no n i e rr im en t
either o f others or his o wn , was eve r see n ex ci ted

”
to laug hter .
F or five years previou s t o hi s decea se he had

been afl ict ed with asthm a ; his constitution was
completely shattered and at len g th dropsy the
, ,
common attendant on long su fferings and ex

treme debility, m ad e its appe arance . H e was
POPE .
2 03
fo r some time delirious but a d ay Or two before

,
hi s death he bec ame c ollected H e was asked.
whet her a C atholic priest should n ot be called

to him ; he replied , I d o not think it is e ssen
tial but it will be very right and I thank you
, ,
”
for putting me in mind of it . The c al m se lf
possession the , di gnity , and the decorum of his
reply , well be c ame the last moments o f a C hri s
tian philosopher ; the form s of his reli gi on had
no hold o f his affections but that was no reason

,
why its duties should be neglected ,

or why the
feelings of those who believed in the efficacy of
its form s should be outraged . Death at length

happily terminated the su fferings o f a li fe which
was a long di sease for such ,
was the career o f
P ope from his cradl e to the tomb in which he

, ,
was deposited in his fift y-sixth year .
Whatever were his in fi rm it ies , however great

t heir influence on his temper or his conduct it ,
20 4 POPE .
app ears that neither his irasc ibility , n or his

capriciou sness had ever estran ged a real friend
,
.
H is biographer who ,
has spared none of his
failings , has admit t ed this fact . The ca use of
his defe cts was t oo obvious t o those who were fa
miliar with him to be overlooked ; they kne w

,
that ill-heal th had an unfavourable influen ce on

his character and that knowledge
, was su ffi cient
to shield his errors from inconsiderate censure ,
and uncharitable severity .

20 6 J OHNSON .
There are three pec uliarities in John son s ’
character which every on e is aware o f, his iras

c ibilit y , his su perstition and his fear of death ;
,
bu t there are very many acquai nted with these

singular inconsistencies Of s o great a mind who ,
are ignorant , or at least unobservant Of that ,
mal ady under which he laboured from man ,
hood to the close Of life the symptoms , o f which
disease are invariably those very moral in fi r m i
ties of tem pe r and j udgment , which we r e his

well known defects . F ew indeed are i g noran t
, ,
that he wa s subj ect to great depression of spi a
rits amounting almost to despair but g enerally

, ,
s pe aking the precise nature of his disorder and

, ,
the extent o f its infl uence over the ment al fa,
c ult ie s , are very little considered .
There are a train Of sym ptom s bel ongin g to
a particular disease described by C ullen , an d
amongst them it is worth while to c o n s id a

‘
J OHNSON . 207
whether the anom alies that have been alluded

to in the character of Johnson are to be disco
vered . The following are C ullen s term s
’
A disposition to seriousness sadness and , ,
timidity as to all future events an apprehensi on ,
o f the worst and most unhap py state O f them ,
and therefore Often

, , on slight grounds an , a
p
prehension of great evil . S uch persons are
pa rt icularly attentive to the state of their o wn
health to every the smalles t change

, of feeling
in their bodies ; and from any unusual sensa
tion perhaps Of the slightest kind they
, , a
ppre
hend great danger and even death i t se lf . In

respect to these fee lings and fears there is com ,
”
m o n ly the most obstinate be lief and persuasion .
It is needless to say the di sease that is spoken

,
of is hy pochondria . Whether Johnson was it s

victim , or whether the defects in his character
were original im p erfections and in fi r m it ie s, na ~
20 8 J OHNSON .
tural to his disposition rem ains , to be shown in

the following pages .
We hav e a fe w words y o f the nature o f

'
to sa
hypocho ndria which need n o t alarm the general

,
reader ; so little is known o f any thing relative

to it besides its symp t oms that very little c an ,
be said upon the subj ect . In the first place it

m ay be as well to acknowl edge that the seat of
the disorder is unknown . S econ dly , be the seat
where it may , t he nature of the morbid action

that is going we likewise know and
'
on , n ot : ,
thirdly , th at it is a disorder little und e r

“
the influence o f medicine almost ,

all medical
authors do ad mit . These a dmission s , we a
p
prehend ,
bring the question to v ery narrow
limits to limits which trench on the boundaries
,
of every literary m an s estate : for indeed the ’
, ,
most important points left for con sideratio n are
whethe r men of studious habits are more sub

'
21 0 J OHNSO N .
peal to general experience for the confirmation ,
O f the opinion that time and temperance are the

,
t wo gr and remedies O f morbid melancholy The .
s ymptoms o f hypochond ria are generally pre

ceded by those o f indigestion thou gh not in ,
very m any cases accompanied by them and ,
not unfrequently do those of hy pochondria de n
generate into on e form or other of p artial insa

n it y ; in short hypochondria is the middle state
,
between the va pours o f dyspe psia and the de '
lusion s o f monomania . O ne of the greatest

evils Of this disorder is the inj usti ce that the
invalid is exposed to from the common Opinion
that it is the weakness of the su fferer and , n ot
the power of the disease which makes his , me
“
lan c holy a thing of life apart and the ne
gleet of exerting his volition which enables it ,
to take p ossession Of his spirits and even ,

of his
sen ses . H is well meaning fri e ds see no reas n n o
J OHNSO N . 21 1
why he should deem him self either sick o r s or
r o wful, when his physician can put his finger

on no one part of his frame and say
, , H ere is a
dise ase or whe n the patien t himself can point
out no real evil in his prospect and say , ,
H ere
is the cause of my dej ection . I t is vain to tell
him his su fferings are imaginary and mu st be ,
conquered by his reason and that the shape s ,
Of horror and the sounds

, of terror which haunt ,
and harass him by day and night are engen ,
dered in his brain and are the effects

,
o f a cul
p bla
e indulgence in gloomy reveries . In his
better moments he him s elf knows that it is so ,
but in spite of ever y exertion those reveries do

,
c ome upo n him ; and inste ad o f receding from

the gulf they open beneath his feet he feels ,
like a timid person standing on the verge of a

precipi c e irresistibly impelled
,
to fling himself
from the brin k on which he to t ters I t is worse .
2 12 J OHNSON .
than useless to reason with him about the ab
surdity Of his conduct — his temper is only irri

t at e d : it is cruel to laugh at his del usion s or ,
to try to laugh him out of them — his misery is

only increased by ridi cule .
I t may be very true , that he e x aggerat es

every feeling ; but as Dr James J ohn so n has
’
'
, .
“
j ustly Observed ,
all his sensations are exa
g
gerated not by his

, v oluntary act but by the ,
morbid sensibility of his nerves which he can ,
”
not by any exertion Of his mind prevent .
R aillery , remonstrance , the best Of homilies ,
the gravest Of lectures , do not answer here ; the

argument must be addressed to the disordered
mind through the med ium Of the stomach
,
. A
well regulate d regimen and an aromatic ,
a e
p
-
rient may do more to remove the delusion of the
hypoc hondriac than any thing that can be said
, ,
prea ched , or prescribed to him .

21 4 J OHNSON .
as on cas ual excesses . Its humour is like

M ercury s weather beaten statue which
’
-
,
had
once been gilt the surface was clean and uni

form but in the chink s there was still a rem
,
n ant Of gold : and in the purest bod ies if once ,
tainted by hypochondria there will be some ,
relics o f melan choly still left not , so easily to

be rooted o ut . S eldom doe s this disease pr o
cu r e death except (which is the most grievous
,
calamity o f all ) when these patients make away

w ith them sel v es — a thing familiar enough
amongst them when they are driven to do vio
len c e to them selves to escape from pr esent ia
su fferable pain . They can take no rest in the

nigh t , or if they slumber fearful dreams asto
,
nish them their soul abhorreth all meat and

, ,
’
they are brought to death s door being bound ,
in misery and in iron . L ike Job they curse

,
their stars for Job , wa s melancholy to despair ,

J OHNSON . 21 5
and almost to madness . They are weary of the

sun an d yet afraid to die, c ic er e n o lu n t et m ori
A nd then, like E sop s fishes, they ’

'
n e s czu n t .
leap from the frying pan into the fire -

,
w hen
they hope to be eased by mean s of physic —a
miserable end to the disease when ultimately

left to their fate by a j ury of physicians furi
o us ly disposed ; and there remains no more
to such persons if that heavenly , P hysician by ,
his grace an d mercy (whose aid alone av ails )

, ,
do not heal and help them . One day of such

grief as theirs is as an hundred years : it is a
,
plague of the sense a convulsion Of the so ul , ,
an epitome of
h it is foun d in m elaa l
'
e ar t w
to be a an s
heart ! NO bodily torture is like unto it all ,
other griefs are swallowed up in this great

E uripus . I say o f the melancholy man ,
be is
the cream and quintessence of human adversity .
2 16 J OHNSON .
A ll other disea ses are t rifle s t

is the pith and m arrow o f th
c ho l
y man is the tru e P ro
C aucasu s the true Tityus

”
still de v oured by a vulture .
2 18 J OHNSON .
short that he had neither the heavenly armour

,
of reli gion which is hope and confidence in the

,
goodness Of the Deity— nor the eart hly shield

of honour which is freedom Of spirit and fea r
,
lessness of death .
The minor critic ,

w ith superciliou s air spoke ,
of the ferocious po wers Of t he . great bear

o f learning , the u npresentable person of the
“
respectable H ottentot ,
”
who had knock e d down
his book seller wit h o n e '
o f -his o wn folios . He
inveighed against the coarsen ess of his manner s ,
the tyran ny o f hi s conversation and the , un
his ap pearance
“
co ut hn es s o f : had the presen t

bee n his day he would hardly be tolerated in
'
good society . An author so ignor an t o f the

f t hr hs t in g
'
“
les ser moral s as to be capable o
his fingers into a su g ar-basin Of rolling abo ut ,
his huge frame in c om

p at r ,
y to the great peril of
every thing around him woald certain ly not be ,
J OHNSON . 21 9
endured westward o f Temple Bar ; and none

but Boswell could be mean enough to put up
with his v ulgar arrogan c e .
We li st en e d with patience so long as the bard

was di s paraging his brother ; but when the
minnow O f literature had the audacity to assail
the Triton O f eru d ition to u se an elegant S cot
,
t ic is m —o ur corruption rose and though the ,
memory o f the Doctor had been reviled no les s by

the har d than the gentleman j ust spoken o f, we
could not help expressing an opinion in an au
dible voice that it was something after all to

,
be torn to pieces by a lion but to be gnawed to ,
death by a rat ,
was to o loathsome a fate fo r
the worst malefactor .
That an author of the Doctor s ou twar d man ’
and uncompromising manners would c ut a very

sorry figure in H olland house is very possible ,
.
If F oscolo got into irretrievable disgr ce for a
L 2
2 20 J OHNSON .
standing o na chair in the library to reach a

volume ho w surely w ould the Doctor by some
'
, ,
unhappy exploit some sturdy opinion or, un fo r
t un a t e disposition o f his members bring the ,
v engeance o f offended patronage and outraged ,
del icacy , on his head

N evertheless, John son wa s not behind t he
intelligence o f his a
g e, though his manners
were uncompromising his energy , o f character
oftentimes O ffensive , his person ungainly ,
“
though his local habitati on had been even
east ward o f Temple Bar , and though his
”
name has become associated in som e minds ,
w it h the idea O f a recondite savage . There is

“
something in the expression uncouth appear
”
ance which implies v ulgarity and therefore is it ,
that on e like P ope with a distorted figure or

, ,
like Byron with a deformed foot is less subj ec t ,
to disagreeable ob servations than ,

on e so un
222 J OHNSON .
.
life and which have been noticed and ridiculed
,
as eccentric habits and tricks , of gesture th at,
he had accustomed him self to . S ir Joshua

“
R eynolds says , these tricks of Dr John son .
proceeded from a habit which he had indulged

himse lf in Of accompanying his thoughts with
,
certain untoward actions , and tho s e actions

always appeared to me as if they were meant
”
to reprobate some part Of his past conduct .
An od d way certai nly O f reprobating it ; but

there is no occasion to refer these motions to so
m y s t er io us an origin : the cau se was unquestion

ably the disorder of his ner vous system . The
violence o f his temper and the gloom which
,
overcast his religious feelings throughout his

life were no less evidently the e ffects
,
of that
morbid irritability which u ltimately bec ame a
fixed an d permanent hypoc hondria .
“
This
”
m alady , says his biographer ,
was long
J OHN SON .
223
his con st itution and t o it may be

‘
lurking m ,
'
many of his peculiari ties i n afte r

'
ascribed ‘
life
they ga th ered such strength in his twentieth
year as to afflict him d readfully .
'
Before he
quitted L ichfi eld , he was ov er wh elmed with
his disorde r, wi t h per pe tual
'
fre t fulnes s , an d
'
'
ment al Zd e s po nd en cy which made e xist ence mi

’
s er a ble . F rom this malady he he v er pe rfe ctly

'
”
re co v ered .
So great was t he d ej ec t iOn Of his spiri t s about

' ' '
his pe riod t ha t he de scribed hims elf at-

t im
’
t es
'
as being unable to disting uish t he bour f

upo n
A s be ad van ced in
'
the t o wn ic loc k .
r '
life t his
'
depression increased in ; in t e n s it y, a1 i d differ ed

v ery lit t le fro m. the early symptoms of C owper s ’
malady : t he Only di fference was in the quality

'
of th e mi n d s whic h '
t he
'
disease ha d to ip re
y
upon ; the different power Of s i

r e s s t an ce
'
o f a
vigorous and a vacillating intellect "
On o ne
'
.
2 24 J OHNSON .
occasion Johnson was found by Dr A dam s in a .
deplorable condi t ion , sighing groa ning,

, an d
talking to him self, and restlessly walking from

room to room ; and when questioned a bout
his state declaring
,
he would con sent to hav e a
”
limb amputated to recover his spirits .
The limits which separate melancholy from

m adness were brought to so narrow a compas s ,
that had his malady advanced another ste p it ,
is lamen table to think that its m a stery over the

powerful mind of the su fferer would proba bly
have been permanent and complet e . The t or
t ur ed ins t rument of reason was w ound up to its

highest pitch , and nothing was wanting to
j angle the conco rd o f its s w eet sounds but an
other impulse of his di sorder . H is peace was
w holly destroyed by doubts an d terrors ; he
speaks Of his p ast life as a barren w a ste Of his
time with some di sorders
,
of body and disturb
2 26 J OHNSON
lan choly man as to implant the very notion in
,
his mind which it was his business to endeavour

‘
to eradicate if already fix e d there ; n amely ,
that mad ness was to be the termination o f his

disease . Was this doctor simple enough to
imagine that there is anything in genius which
,
renders the intellect better able to suppor t

p r osp ective evil or the undisg uised
, pr og nosis
o fa fearful malady than the humble fac u
,lties
of an ordinary mind ? S imple indeed he would
be to think so and little acquainted with h uman

,
nature .
B ut the error we well know is daily com

, ,
m it t ed by the inexperienced Of supposing that ,
literary m en are possessed of strength o f mind

that may enable them to rise superior to the
fears and appre hen sion s o f the common in v alid ,
and ,
consequently that all reserve is to be laid
,
as ide and the real condition

,
Of such patients
J OHN ON S .
22 7
and fear less ly w

'
freel y exhibit ed
'
t O t he ir V ie
'
’
This a great mis take :

r
t he
'
is m os t po werful
talen t s are generally u nited with the acu tes t sen
s ib i lit y, a nd in dea l ing with s uc h ca ses t he
‘ '
c on r
i
s de rat e physici an has to e nc Our ag e , an d n ot to
depress the invalid :
, to t em per cand our wi t h
delicacy nd fi r mne ss abov e all thing s With

'
a .
gentleness Of m anne r; and ! even kindne s s Of

'
heart . If it be essent ial i a on e disease m o re
than an other fo r t he phys idi an t o c om m and t he

'
O fi d e n ce of
"
'
his pat ie ii t , t O hi s respe ct

’ '
c n en g ag e ,
an d to convi nce liirn Of

'
'
t he fperso n al interest
‘
t h at is t aken in his health an d wll b e a i g

e IP —that
d isease is morbid me lan choly .
Johnson was w
.
tell his th at
'
ont to fr iend s, he
inherited a vile melancho ly fromhis father ”

,
which made him m ad all his li fe —

i
'
OP at le ast s
, ,
”
On St an t t error
’
not sober Insanity was t he f

' '
. c o
his :
life ; t hé Opin iOn of Di Sw
infe n hau
nted
“
" ‘
' '
.
2 28 J OHNSON .
him like a spirit Of ev il . whe r ev er he went ; and

at the very period as Boswell Observ es when
, ,
he was giving the world proofs o f no ordinary

vigour of understanding he actually fancied ,
‘
himself insane , or in a state as nearly as possi

,
ble approaching to it
, .
Johnson s m alady and

’
C owper s were ’
p
re
c ise l similar in the early period of each as we

y ,
’
have be fore remarked ; the only d ifle r en c e was
in the strengt h of m ind of either su fferer .
C o wper at once surrendered himself up to the

tyranny o f his diso r der and t ook a pleasure in
,
parading the chains of his melancholy before

the eyes of his correspon d ents even when ,
im
m uring him self at home in t he infected atmo

’
sphere O f his o wn enthu siasm while John son

struggled with his disease som etim es indeed,
in a spirit of ferocious independence and very ,
se ldom complaine d to his most intimate friends

230 J OHNSON .
CHA P T E R X V I I I .
J OHN SON CON TI NUE D .
’
J O H N SO N S disorder (if we may be allowed the
expression ) had three phases the character , o f
each of which distinguish ed a particular period

of his career or rather predominated at a
, par
t ic ula r period for it cannot be said that the

,
hues O f each were n ot occasionally blended .
A t twenty , howe v er, his despondency was o f a

-fi v e “
religiou s kind : about forty his melan
”
c ho l w as at its meridian and then had the
y ,
shape of a fierce irritability venting itself in ,

J O H N SO N . 231
irascibility o f temper and fits of capricious

,
arrogance .
A t the full period of three-score years and

”
ten , the leading symptom of his hypochondria
was the apprehension of death and every day
,
appeared to aggravate his terrors of the grave .
”
This wa s the black dog that worri ed him to
the last moment . M etastasio we , are told ,
ne v er permitted the word death to be p ro
n o u n c ed in his p r esence ; and Johnso n was so
agitated by hav ing the subj ect spoken of in his

hearing th at , on one occasion he insulted Bo s
well for introd ucing the topic and in the words

'
of t he la t t e r , he had put “
his head into the
lion s mouth a great many times with compara
’
tive safety but at last had it bitten

,
F or many years before his death says ,
A rth ur M urphy terri ble was the prospect

, so
‘
o f death , that when hewas not dis po se d .

to enter
232 J O HN SO N .
into the conversation that was going forward ,
whoever sat near his chair might hear him re
e at in those lines of Shak s pe ar e

p g
To d ie an d g o we k n ow n ot h
w er e .
”
H e acknowledged to Bos w ell he never had a

moment in which death was n ot ter rible t o him
an d even a t the age of sixty-nine he says he
had m ad e no approaches to a state in which he
co uld look upon death without terror .
A t seventy-fi v e , we find him writing to his

friends to consult all the eminen t physicians o f
their a cquaintance on his case . To his kind

and excellent physician , Dr Brocklesby ; he
.
writes , I am loathe to think that I grow

worse but cannot prove
, to my o wn parti ality
that I grow m uch better . P ray be so kind as
to have me in your thoughts , and mention my
2 34 J OHNSON .
pas s to blacken his character Speaks ,

of his fear
o f death in terms which im ply so me crime o f
'
ex t r aordi nary m agnitude weighing on his hear t ;
it was with difficul ty he says he c ould persuade
, ,
him to execute a will apparen tly as if he feared

,
his doing so would hasten his di ssolutio n Thr ee .
or four days before his deat h he declared , he

“
w ould give one of his legs for a year m Ore of
life . When the R ev . M r S astres alled upon

. c
him Johnson stretch e d forth his hand an d ex

, ,
clai med in a melancholy tone , Jam mori

turu s '” But the ruling p as sion o f his disease
was st ill st rong in death for at his o wn s u
g g e s
tion when his surgeon

,
was making slight inci
sions in his legs with t he idea Of relieving his
dropsical disorder John son cried o ut
, , Deepe r ,
deeper ; I wan t length of life and you , are
afraid of giving me pain which I do not value,

.
”
O n the v ery last day o f his existen ce , ”

says
J O H N SO N .
235
M urphy , t he desire of life returned with

all its former vehemence ; he still i magined that
by puncturing his legs relief might be Ob t ained .
A t eight in the morning he tried the ex er

p i
”
ment but no water fo llo wed
, . If J ohn so n ’
s fear
of death were not the effect of disease it would ,
be impossible to contemplate his conduct either

in sickness or in sorro w in his closet or , on his
death-bed without feelings Of absolute disgust
,
.
What other sentiment could be entertained
For him wh w l o cra s en a m d fd y

our e o ec a ,
C li g hi u h
n s to s co c , an d s c ik y w y
en s e ars a a ,
and shudders at the breath of every word which

reminds him o f the grave ? The bravest man
that ever lived may not encounter death w ith
out fear nor the best

, C hristian envisage eter
n it y with unconcern ; but there is a di ffer
ence between the feelings of either and the ,
236 J OHN SON .
slavish terrors Of a coward in extremity There .
is a distinction moreover which is still more

, ,
w orthy of Observation — the wide distinction be
t ween the fear of death that springs from an in
herent baseness o f disposit ion an d that appr o

,
he n s io n of it which
ari ses from the depressin g
influence of a disease Who can doubt that .
Johnson s ’
m orbid feelings on this point w ere
occasioned by hypochondria ? and what medic al

man at leas t is not aware that the fear of death
, ,
is as in separable a compa nion of hypochondria

as preternatural heat is a symptom of fever ?
W e have now a few observation s to make on
’
the subj ect of Johnson s s u perstition ; and we
preface them with an observation of M elane
thon whi ch deserves t he attention Of all lite
,
rary men . M elancholy ,

”
(says this am iable
“
man who had been himself its victim ) is so fre
, ,
quent and troublesome a ( fi sease , that it is na

23 8 J OHNSON .
tering agency Of departed spirits . Hi s senti
ments on these subj ects though expres sed in a

,
work of fiction are well known to have been his

,
deliberate opinions . That the de ad are seen

no more I will n ot undertake to main t ain
against the concurrent and unvaried testimon y
of all ages and of all nations . There are no
peo
ple , r ud e or learn e d , among whom ap paritions
of the dead are n ot related or belie v ed . Thi s
opinion which perhaps prevails as far as hu man
,
nature is di ffused could become uni ver s al only

,
”
by its truth .
This is the langu age o f the hypoc hondri ac ,
n ot o f the morali st who in the exercise of a

,
sobe r j udgment mu st have known that the co n
current testimony Of all experience an d philo '
sophy was Opposed to the opinion that th o se

who are once buried are seen again in this
world .
J OHNS ON .
23 9
There are many of what are called the e

p
'
’
cu liarit ie s of J O hn son s superstition which ex ,
ci t e surprise but are , n ot generally known to be

the characteristic symptom s o f hypochondria .
” “
H e h ad one peculiarity , says Boswell , of
which none of his friends e v er ventured to as k
an explanation . This was an anxious care to
g o o u t or in at a door , or passage by a certain ,
number of steps from a certai n point , so as that

either hi s righ t or left foot I forget , w hich ,
should constantly m ake the first actual move

ment . Thus upon innumerable o ccasions I
,
ha v e s een him suddenly stop and then seem ‘
, to
count hi s steps with deep e arnestness and when ,
he had neglected , or gone wrong in this sort , o f
m agical movement I have seen ,

hi m go back
ag ain put himself in a proper posture to begin
,
the ceremony and having gone through it

, ,
2 46 J O HN s O N .
break from his abs traction walk br iskly on 3 aa d

’
”
j oin his companion . S ir Josh ua R eynolds
has Observed him go a long way about rather
than cros s a particular alley . H is piety , five
are told by M urphy in some instances bord ere d

,
on superstition that he thought it not more

,
strange that there should be evil spirits than e v il

men ; and even that the question of sec ond
sight held him in su spen se . He w as like wise
in the habit o f imposing on himself volu n tary
penance for every little defect goi n g throug h ,
the day with only on e cup of tea without mil k ,
and at other time abstaining from anim al food .
H e appears likewise to have had a superst itious

notion o f the e fficacy o f repeating a detached
senten ce of a prayer o v er and o v e r some what ,
in the manner Of a Turkish d evotee , who limits

himself d ai ly to the repetition of a particular
2 42 J OHNSON .
mind being t hus engaged by an

o f obj ec ts may
, n ot grow weary .
it may his su pe rs titious notion s

,
van ces were en cour aged if , n ot 0
disease .
J OHNSON . 243
C H A PT E R XI X .
J O HNSON C ON TI NUE D .
T HE indefatigable Burton has ran sacked all me

d ic al authorities ancient and modem
, , for the
sym ptoms of h ypochondr ia and amongst those
he has enumerated there is n o t on e o f Johnson s ’
mi scalled peculiarities which is , n ot to be found .
“
M any of these melancholy men , says Bur
ton ,
“
are sad and not fearful— some fearful
,
and not sad .

(Johnson , fo r ins t ance groan ,
ing in his chambe r as Dr A dams found him

, .
,
an d at another pe riod knoc king down a book

M 2
2 44 J OHNSON .
seller in his o wn shop ) . S ome fear deat h , an d
y et , in a contrary humour make away , wi th

”
them selve s .
(Johnson indeed did not commi t
, ,
suicide but his fear

, o f dea th was never s un
passed ) . O thers are troubled with scr uples o f

conscience distrusting , G od s mercies thi king
’
, n
the devil w ill have them , an d making great la

”
mentations .
(S imilar qu alms and a
ppre hen
sions harassed the doctor to hi s latest hour ) .
O ne durst n ot walk alone from home for fe ar

”
he sh ould swoon or die .
(The terror of su c h
an occurrence probably c ontribute d to o fine
c n
the gr ea t moralist for so many years to hi s be
loved F leet S treet ) .

“
A second fears all ol d
women as witches and every black , d og or ca t
”
he sees he s us ec t e t h to be a d e vil (Whether
p .
he be lie v ed in the witchery of O ld wom en , or
young we know not but he

, , was unwilling ho w
ev er to deny their po wer and the black dog ,
2 46 J OHN SON .
have a parallel in the state of his spirits when

at the university such as extorted the melan
,
c holy deni al to Dr A dams of having been

. a
gay and frolicsome fellow at college ”
0 , Sir ,
I was mad and violent but it was bitterness

, ,
which they m istook for frolic . Y et , fo r all

this ,
”
continues B urt on summing u p his , ao
“ ”
c ount Of the m adness Of melancholy , in the
“
words of an old author , in all these th ings
these people may be wise staid discreet and do , , ,
noth ing unbeseeming their dignity place , , or
person — thi s foolish and ridiculous fear ex
t ed , which continu al ly tor tures and c r uc ifi es

ce
p
”
their souls .
T he habits of Dr Johnson were most

. n u
favourable to health — he was a late riser a ,
large eater indolent and inactive

, . In the in
t ervals of his disorder he laboured for a time to
counteract the effects o f these habits and he , so

J OHNSON . 2 47
far succeeded in controlling his disease as to be

able to divert those distressing thoughts which ,
it was a folly he sai d to combat with

, , . To
thin k them down he told Boswell was , , im po s
sible but to acquire the power Of managing the

,
mind he looked upon as an art that might be

,
a ttained in a great degree by experi ence and

“
exercise . U pon the first a ttack of his dis
” “
order , say s Boswell ,
he strove to overcome it
by forcible exertion and frequently walked to
,
Birmingham and b ack agai n and tried many ,
other expedients but all in vain , his expressio n

to me was , I did n ot then know how to manage
my disorder . O ne of the ways he pr oposed
accompli sh ing this end was by continually oc
cu
py in
g his min d without fatiguing it either
, ,
by d ay , rep eating certain words , in counting

a c ertain number of steps ; or at night when ,
wakefully disturbed by burning a lam p in his

,
2 48 J OHNSON .
bed-room , t aking a book , and t hus c om po sing

himself to rest . H is grand prece p t was ,
“
if
y ou are idle be not solitary if , y ou are soli

”
tary be not idle . T he great secret however , ,
f this management of mind appears to have '
been a periodical 6 t of abstinence persevered ,
in so long as th e violence of any new attack of
his m al ady was u pon him . H e was far from

temperate in the pleas ures o f the table ; he
could drink his three bottles of wi ne he says , ,
an d not be the worse for it ; the capacity Of hi s

stomach we doubt n ot, but its invulnerability is
very questionable . The doct or like the , great
” “
ch ild of honour , was a m an Of an unbound ed
stomach .
”
G enerally speaking , be fed grossly ;
he even boasted of his veneration for good liv
ing and spoke
,
o f one unmindful of his belly
as likely to be u nmindful Of every thing else .
H e sometimes talked with contempt of pe o

250 J OH SON N .
which a man might be drow ned before it made

him drunk ; no claret for me sir— poor stu ff ,
it is the liquor for boys ; P ort is the drink for

men .
A t fifty , however , his increasing ai lments

obliged him to give u p wine altogether for ne ar
twenty years but at the age,
O f seventy-t wo he
returned again to the u se of it . S till every
”
thing abou t his character ,
says Boswell , was
forcible and violent there never was any mod e
,
ration many a day did he fast many a day did ,
he refrain from wine ; but when he did eat it ,
was voraciously when he did drink it was , 00
”
piousl y . D uring the period that he abst ained
fr om wine he betook himself to the u se Of tea
, ,
but he was as intemperate a tea-drinker as ,
he had been formerly a wine-bibber . The

U
quant i ti es says Boswell which he drank of

C
, ,
it at all hours was so great that his nerves must ,

J OHN SON . 251
hav e been uncommonly strong n ot to have b een

extremely relaxed by such an immoderate use of
”
it . But perhaps
, , on e o f the most inj ur io us of
his habits was the late hours at all periods , Of
his life that he was in the habit of keeping

,
.
L ike all hypo c hohd r iacs, he was a bad sleeper ,
and when Sleepless he was accustomed to use ,
“ ”
his o wn words , to read in bed like a Turk
not one f the d octor s happiest im ilie s by the
’
O s :
way- the Turk neither reads in bed nor out of

“
it . I n one of her letters he says , ,
his life ,
from his earliest years , wa s wasted in a morning

” ”
be d . H e has been often heard to relate , we
are t old by M urphy that he and S avage ,
wal ked round G rosvenor S quare till four in the

morning in the course of their conversation t e
forming the world , &c . unt il fatigued at length
they began to feel the want of refreshment but ,
could n ot muster more than four-pence half

252 J OHNSON .
in t his
93
penny . There is a t rifling i n accuracy
ac co un t ; G rosvenor S qua e
St .
’
James s and , n ot r
was the scene f their nocturnal ramble P oor o .
S avage has bee n unj ustly charged with being

’
the cau se of all the doctor s disorders but at ,
the age of forty-three we find him as disposed

as ever for a ramble at unseasona ble h o urs .
On on e occasion Beauclerk and L angton rapp ed

him up at three in the morning , to prev ail on
”
him to accompany them . The doctor , says
“
Bo swell , m ade his appearance in his shir t ,
with hi s little black wig on the t op Of his head

instead of a nigh t-cap , and a po ker in his hand ,
imagin ing that some r uflian s had come to at t ack

him when he discovered who they were , an d
what t heir errand he smi led with great good ,
humour and agreed t o their proposal . What !

”
'
is it you you dogs ! I ll have a frisk with you ’

, .
These habits and the excesses they , led t o, wer e

2 54 J OHNSON .
ai n in the literary world S ubsequently ,

p g .
when the gloom O f his disorder drove him into

company to escape from the tyranny of his o wn
sad thoughts he contracted habits of convivi a

,
lit y , and to use on e of his o wn gran diloquent

terms , of gulosity which rendered his vigils
,
not only pleasing to the rosy god but his tas te ,
for the good things of the ta ble a passion which ,
a whole synod of cooks could hardly gratify .
P oor Boswell complained that he was half

’
killed with his irregularities in the Doc tor s
company . P ort and late hours with Johnson
, ,
had ruined his nerves ; but his frien d c on sol ed

him with the assurance that it was better to be
palsied at eighteen , than not keep company
with such a man .
Quo a d O in um , Johnson loved his wine pro

bably better than Burns did his whiskey ;
,
o ur
great moralist loved it for it s flavour but the

,
J OH N SON . 2 55
unfortunate bard liked it for its e ffects . The

on e flew to it for enj oyment the other for relief ;
,
it was the di fference between food and physic

betwee n mirth and madness . The power of
abstaining from the inordinate cup that is
unblessed ”
contrasts the vigor of Johnson s ’
mind with the lamentable weakness of Burn s

the one could not abstain for a single day ,
while the other could give up his for wine twenty

years although he seemed
,
to think n ot a little
of the deprivation . It was a great deduction ,
he t old Boswell , fr om the pleasures Of life ,
not to drink w ine .

2 56 , J OHNSON .
CH A P T E R XX .
J OHN SON CON TI NUE D .
H rs health began to break do wn about fifteen

years befor e his death . In 1 766, his co n st it w
tion ,
”
says M urphy , see med to be in a rapid
decline , and that morbid me lancholy whi ch
oft en clouded hi s understanding , came u pon
him with a deeper gloom than ever . M r and
.
M rs Thrale paid him a visit in t his ituat i n

. s o ,
and found him on his knees with a clergyman ,
beseeching G od
continue t him the u se f
to o o
his understanding F rom this period t hi

. o s
seventy -third year his fits Of melancholy were

2 58 J OHNSON .
that it was fatal to the powers of his c on s t it u
tion , an d that the palsy and dropsy which very

soon ensued were , t he e ffects of the debility SO
great a loss of blood occasioned . The diseases

of o ld men whose vital energies have been
expended in literary pursuits are seldom to be
remedied by t he lancet , and when employed
in such cases , it is very Often the li t tle
instrumen t o f migh t y mischief which
, Reid h as
termed it . A bout a year after his first attack
of asthma du ring which time he w as frequently
,
bled fo r the disorder he was se ized with para

,
lysis, that m alady which li t erary men more th an ,
any o t hers have reason, to g uard against . T he

vigor o f his great mind was m anifested on this
occasion in communic ating the intelligen ce of
his calamity to on e o f his friends A few hou r s

.
onlyafter his attack while he , was dep rived of

J OHNSON .
speech , and Of the power o f moving from hi s

bed , he so far t riumphed over his in fi r m ities
as to write to Dr Taylor the following .
account of his condition . I t has pleased G od ,
by a paralytic stroke in the night . to deprive

me of sp eech . I am very d esirous Of Dr H e .
’
herden s assistance as I think my case is
, n ot
past remedy . L et me see y ou as soon as it

is possible ; bring Dr . H ebe den with
r
y ou, if
you can ; but come yourself at , all events . I

am glad you are so well when I am so dread
,
fully attacked . I think that by a spe edy ap
plication of s t imul ants , much may be done .
I question if a vomit vigorous and rough , ,
would not rou se the organs O f speech to action .
A s it is t oo early to send I will try to ,

r e col
l ect what I can that may be suspected to have

brought on this dreadful disease . I have
260 J OHNS ON .
been accus omed t to bleed frequently for an ‘
asthmatic complaint but , ha ve fo rbo rne some

time by Dr P epy s
.
’
persuasion who per ived
, ce
”
my legs beginning to swell .
Ho w strongly is the powerful intellect of
John son , (yet unimpai red by his d isor d er fi

s hewn in these few emphati c wor ds ! T he ur
gen oy ocase the nece ssity for p In pt

f the ,
rO
assistance and th c onsciou sness f t he d bi-

, e o e u
lit y tha t had been brough t on his consti tution

by so m uch depletion ; and yet what e x tra
ordi n ary ignorance of the common principles of
medicine is exhibited in t he r e medi al plan he
propose s for his relief The merest Tyro in ‘
the m edi cal art would have seen nothi ng in t he
administration of the vomit vigorous and rough ,
but the prospec t o f agg ravat ed danger , of in
creased determination to the head, an d even of

262 J OHNSON .
tardy j usti ce o f t heir times : his great merit in

his lifetim e was u niversally ac knowledg ed and ,
public as well as private admirat ion an d grati

tude were not li mited to the j ustice that his me
mory was entitled t o, but were displayed in
acts of generosity that were calculat ed to re war d
the exertions Of the li ving m an and , to increase
his comforts in sickness and di stress . There was
no subscription at his death for the purc hase o f
his Bolt-court tenement , t o bes to w on M rs L ucy

.
P orter of L i hfi
, c eld , and her descendan ts— there
was no appeal m ade t o the p oc kets of the public
for the erection Of a pillar to perpetuate his
fame ; but the bo unty of his sovereign was ex
tended to him in his indigence and in , t he hour
o f sickness t he ben efi cen t hand o f private friend
ship and O f publi c benevolence was held forth
to him . When there was a q uestion o f enabling
hi m t o visit I t aly for the rec overy Of his health ,
J OHNSON .
2 63
L ord Thurlow, we are told, offered five hun

dred pounds to meet the expen ses of his j our
ney ; and his amiable physician Dr Brocklesby , .
,
sig nified his intention of adding a hundred

a- year to his income for life in order that he ,
might not want the means of giving to the re
m ai n d er of hi s days tranquilli ty and comfort .
The conduct o f Brocklesby was worthy of the

j ust and elegant compliment which Johnson
pai d to his profession , in his life of G arth .
I believe every man has foun d in physicians

great liberality and dignity of sentiment very ,
prompt effusions of ben efi c en c e, and will ingness

to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope
”
o f lucre .
John son continued to struggle with his com

plaints till the latter part Of 1 78 4 . H is earnest
and const ant prayer ,
that he might be per
m it t ed to deliver up his soul unclouded to G od ,
2 64 J OHNSON .
was gran t ed ; he died in his perfect senses , re
sign e d to his situation , at peace with hi ms elf

and in cha rity with all men in his seventy-fi ft h
,
year .
The circum s tances that we have noticed , con
n ec t e d with the di sorder of this great and g ood

m an are am ply su fficient to show that th e many
,
striking inconsistencies and eccen t r icities in his

charac ter and conduct were occasioned by
, d is
ea s e , or fostered by its influence . H is original

disorder it i s evident was a scrofulous
, , affec
tion which in early life debilitat ed his con s ti

,
t ut ion , and gave that predisposition to hypo

chondria which dogged his whole career .
H ahn e m an , on e of the best Observers of dis

ease (whatever his character as a pharmaceu tical
theorist may be ) that medical scien ce has to boas t
of attributes half the disorders Of hum anity to a
,
scrofulous or scorbutic tain t in the constitution ,

2 66 B URNS .
CH A P T E R XXI .
B U RN S .
E VE RY quarter o f a century a revolutio n tak es ,
place in li t er ar v taste the, O ld idols of its wor

ship are di splaced for newer e ffi ie s, but the
g
ancient altars are only overthrown to be e ta

r e- s
blis he d at some future time and to receive the ,
homage which they forfeited , on account of the

fi ck len es s of their votaries and not in couse
,
ue n ce o f any demerits of their o wn

q .
It is not in the nature Of Burn s productions ’
that his fame Should altogether set aside the

B RNS
U . 2 67
remembrance of his follies ; yet so ably and SO
p hilosophically has his biographer discharged

h is duty to the public and to the individual ,
whose genius he helped to immortalize and , so
truly in the spirit

, O f a philosophical historian ,
has he traced the in fir m it ies O f B urn s t o their

real origin that were it only for the noble e ffort
,
to vindica t e the character of genius , C urrie s ’ '
life of Burns would still deserve to

~
be cousi
d ered one of the best specimens of biography in
the E nglish language . And so long as its ex
c elle n ce had t he freshness o f a n ew performance
to recommend it to t he public and to , la y hold
of its attention ,
the character of Burns was
treated with indulgence , and his poetry was
duly and j ustly appreciated .
But of late years there has been a tendency ,
in literary opinion to underrate the merits of

,
the S cottish har d , and even to exaggerate the

N 2
26 8 B U RN S .
failings of the man . The vulgarity of his errors

and his unfortunate predilection for pipe s and
punch -bowls it is incumbe nt, on every sober
critic to reprobate Byron who in his .
, aris t ocr a
tic m ood had no notion o f a poor man

, holding
the patent Of his honours direct from G od A l
m ighty , could not tolerate the addiction

”
o f a
o ard to such ungentlemanly habits and Burns ,
w as , therefore in the eyes , Of the proud lord a ,
”
strange compound of dirt and deity ; but his
lordship at the time of the Observation was in
, ,
one of hi s fits of outrageous abstinence and to ,
“
u se his o wn language , had no more charity
than a vinegar cruet .
B ul w er has also lately j oined in depreciating

the poor exciseman . I t i s the more to be re
re t t ed , as he has the credit Of possessing more

g
generosity of literary feelings and less ,
o f the
ealousy of genius than of his compeers
j m ost .
2 70 B URNS .
put an enemy into the mouth to steal away

the sen ses ”
in the shape o f whiskey ; similar
e ffects m ay ari se from both but the odium is ,
not a lit t le in the qu ali ty and not the quantity , ,
of the potation . In the parlance of convivial

gentlemen to have a bout at the
, C larendon i s
to ex cee d in t he pleasures of the table ; bu t to
commit the same exc ess in a country ale-ho use ,
i s to be in a state of disgu s t ing intoxica t ion .
There is no question , however but that wine is ,
”
a more gentlem anly tipple than any kind Of
ardent spiri t s and that its intoxicating e ffec t is
,
an a m abihs
”
of a milder char ac ter
'
in s a m a
”
than the f which belongs
'
r a bi d zm bun d a to
the latter . The excesses of t he wine-bibbe r ,
moreover are generally

, fe w and far be tween ,
while those of th e dram-drinker are fr equent ,
and infinitely more inj uriou s to mind and body .
In this c oun t ry the poor man is debarred the

B U RNS . 2 71
u se of wine ; Spirit s are unfortunately the

cheaper stimulant ; but were it a matter of
choice he might prefer the former as well as

, ,
the F rench and I talian peas t an .
There is one circumstance however which , ,
des erves consideration in forming any com

p a r ap
tive estim ate of intemperate habits . Di fferent
const itu t ions are di fferently effect ed by the

same exci t ants . Johnson could boast of drink
ing his three bo t t les of P or t wine with im
’
n it but the Doctor s was an
'
u omx
m
p y;
vom n tia g a la P rr could master
. Dr . a t wo
without any inconven ien ce but probably , had
Burn s din e d with either of them he would

,
have found the half of a S co t ch pint might

hav e cau sed him in the morning to have
remembered a m ass of things but nought,
distinctly ,
”
and to conclude he had bee n drink .
ing the vin um m ar ia ab e br iis d oc t or ibus pr o

2 72 B URNS .
pi n a t um , as S t A ustin denominates another

.
inebriating agen t . The sin of intemperance is

certainly the same whether it be caused by
on e bottle or three or whether the alcohol
,
be concentra t ed in on e form , or more

diluted in another .
I n Burns time intempe ranc e was m uch more

’
common in his w alk of life than it no w is . In
P ope s day we find not

’ '
, a fe w o f his most
celebrated contemporaries and im mediate pre
d ec es s o r s addict ed to drunkenness . C owley s ’
death (P ope says) was occasioned by a mean

accident while his great friend Dean
'
P ratt '
was
on a v is it with him at C he rtsey

'
. They had
been together to see a neighbour of
'
C owley s ’ '
w ho , (according to the fashion Of the times ) ,
made them t oo welcome . They did not set o ut
on their walk home till it was t oo late and had ,
drank so deep that they lay ou t in the fields all

,
2 74 B URNS .
assistan c e habit soon rendered necessary and he

, ,
died in hi s thirty -six t h year in some measu r e a ,
m artyr to conj ugal fidelity, somewhat we pre

sume in the way
O f Lor dM oun t -
C ofi e e - o
‘
hu se, t he B itis h pe
r er,
Who di d f l
e o ov e w t i h wi l y
ne ast e ar .
”
But another accoun t describes P arnell s taking

’
to dru n ken ne ss on account Of hi s prospe ct

’
declining as a preacher at t he queen s death ,
and so he be c ame a so t , an d finish ed his

”
exis t ence .
C hurchill was found drunk on a dung-hill .
P rior ac cording to S pe n ser used t bury

, ,
“
o
nim self for whole days and nights t oget her
with a poor mean creature his celebrated C hloe , ,

”
who, unlike R on sar d

’
s C assandra was the bar ,
maid O f t he hou se he frequented . A nd even

B URNS . 2 75
P ope we are told by Dr King hastened his

, .
,
end by drinking spirits .
P r e cedents however are

, , n o plea for crime ,
and to multiply the m would be useless for any

other purpos e than to depreca te the infliction of
an ex cessive p enalty in a Single instance b , e
cau se the latest though not perhap s the most

e normous .
If Burns irregularity deserved the name

’
of
habitual intem perance it , was only during the

latter years of his life . Till his th r ee-and
t wentieth year he was remarkable for his
,
so
briet y , no less than for the modesty of his

b ehaviour . H ad he c ntinued at the plough
o ,
in all probability he w ould have remai ned a

stranger to the vices that his new career un
fortunately led him into . It was only (he tells

,
)
us , when he be c ame an author that he got ,
accustomed to exces s and when hi s friends made

,
him an excise man that his cas ual indulgence in

,
2 76 B URNS .
convi v ial pleasures acq uired the dominion of

a settled habit .
In early life he laboured under a disorder

.
Of the stomach accompani ed by palpitations of

,
the heart depression of the Spirits and nervou s

, ,
pains in the head the nature of which

, he
never appears to h av e understood but which ,
evidently aro s e from dyspepsia . These su ffer

ings be it remembered are complained of in his
, ,
letters years before he had committed an y
excess ; and so far from being the consequence of

intemperance as they are generally considered
,
to have been,the exhaustion they prod uced was
probably the cause which drove him in his

moments of hypochondria to the e xcitement of ,
the bottle for a temporary palliation o f his

symptom s .
NO one but a dyspeptic man who is , ao
q uain t ed with the moral mar tyrdom of the di s

un d e r s t an d of
'
ease can t he degree exhaustion

'
,
2 78 B URNS .
o f his hypoc hondria seem , to have had the

effe ct of soothing the dej ection which in later ,
life he employed other means to al

leviate .
H is biographer has noti ced as a curious fac t , ,
that his melancholy was always banished in t he

“
presen c e o f women . In his youth we are ,
to ld by his brother G ilbert he was constantly

,
the victim Of some fair enslaver ; bu t these

c on n exions were governed by the strictest rules
of v irtue and modesty from which he never,
deviate d till his twenty-third year . H e was

on ly anxious to be in a Situation to m arry : nor
do I recollect he says till t owards the era
, , O f
his commencing autho r when his gro wing cele,
brit y occas ioned his being Often in compan y ,
to have ever seen him in t oxicated nor , was he

at all given to drinking . NO sooner however , ,
was he led in t o in t empe rance than his disor der

became aggravated , and his dej ection fro m ,
B URNS .
2 79
being a casual occurrence , beca me conti

n uaL
The gaiety , says C urrie ,

“
of many of
”
Burn s writings and the lively and even cheer
,
ful colouring with which he has portrayed his

own character may lead some persons to sup
,
pose that t he melancholy which h ung over him
t oward the en d of his days was not an original

part o f his constitution . It is not to be
doubted indeed that this
, , m elancholy acquir ed
a darker hue in the progress Of his life ; but
of
’
independen t his o wn and his brother s te s
t im on y , eviden ce is to be found among his

papers that he wa s subj ect very early to tho se
d epressions of mind which are perhaps , , n ot
w holly se parable from the sensibility of genius,

but which in him arose to an extrao r dinary
”
degree .
At the age o f twenty-t wo he writes to his

28 0 B URN S
father , that the weakness of his nerves has so
debilitated his mind that he dare not revie w

,
past events nor loo k forward i n to futurity for

, ,
the least anxiety or perturbation in his head

produced most unhappy e ffects on his whole
”
frame . This was previous to his in t em per
an c e .
In 1 78 7 Dugald S tewart occasionally saw

”
him in A yrshire ; and notwithstanding , say s
“
the professor , the various reports I heard
of
’
during the preceding winter Burns predi
lection for con v ivial and not very se lect soc iety ,
I should have concluded in favour o i habit s

f hs
of sobriety from all o f him that ever fell under

my o wn Ob s ervation : he told me indeed him
self that the weakness

,
of his stomach was such
as to deprive him entirely of any merit in his
temperance . I was however some what alarmed
, ,
about the effects of his n o w se dentary and luxu

282 B U RNS .
his union with the obj ect Of hi s early at t ach

ment which union then imperatively c alled
, fo r
a public declaration of marriage .
T he nat ural fi ck len es s of his di s position ,
however ,
was soon m anifested in hi s new
career ; and he had h ardly en t ered u pon the
pe aceful enj oymen t of coun t ry life be fore he
fa
’
pined aft er the distinction o maiden author s

brief reign in literary society . The state o f his
fe elings may be gathered at the time from his
co mmon-place book . T his is n ow the third day
that I have been in this country . L ord ! what
'
is m an ? What a bustling little bundl e o f pas
sions appetites ideas and fan c ies

, ,
—and what a
capricious kind of existen c e he has here ! I am
such a coward in life—so tired in the servi c e ,
that I would almos t at any time , with M ilton s ’
A dam ,
G adl ly l y m
a e in my m hot er s
’
lap at e as e .
B URN S .
2 83
H is application to the cares and labours of

his farm , (says C urrie )
, wa s interrupted by
several visits to his family in A yr shire and as ,
the distance was t oo great for a Single day s ’
j ourney he someti m es fell in to company and

, ,
forgot the resolution s he had formed and in a ,
little time temptation assailed him nearer home .
It was not long before he began to view his

”
far m with dislike and despondence .
He n ow ap plied to his friends to procure him

some appointment and by the interest of one
, of
them be procured the post o f an exciseman , or
gauger in the district in which he lived It was

, .
an unfortunate employment for a man li ke Burns ,
and on e which threw all the temptations in his

’
path ,
which a j udi cious friend might have
wished him removed from as far as possible . It
m ust have been a sorry exhibition to have seen
the po r poet hi s
o , m ind probably communing
284 B URNS .
w ith the sk ies scampe ring over

, t he country in
pli r s ui t of some pal try defaulter of the revenue ,
or travelling from ale-house to ale-hou se to

grant permits and do the other drudgery o f his
,
O ffice : such business is rarely transacted with

o ut refreshment and sometimes the refreshment
,
of man and horse is the only business at .
tended to .
I t would have been diffi cult to have devised

a worse occupation for the poor poet , or to have
found a man less fitted for it s duties than Burns .
A fter occupying his far m for nearly three

years and a half he found it nec essary to resign
,
it and depend
,
on the miserable stipend Of his
o tfi c e— abou t fifty pounds a year and which ,
ul t imately ro s e to seventy .
H itherto ,
”
says C urrie ,
“
though he was
addi cted to excess in social parties he had , ah
stained from the habitual use o f strong liquors ,

28 6 B URNS .
down the stream o f error, and swept him over

the precipice he saw directly in his course
”
The fatal defect in his charac t er , ad d s his
“
biographer , lay in the comparative weakness
of his v olition — that superior facul ty Of the
mind which govern s the conduct according to
the dictate s Of the understanding and alon e ,
”
entitles u s to be denominated ration al .
“ ”
The occupations of a poet , he co ntin ues ,
are not calculated to strengthen the gov erning

po wers o f the mind , or to weaken that sensi
bili t y which requires p erp tual control since
e ,
it gi v es birth to the vehemence of passion as ,
well as the higher powers of imagination . Un
fortunately the favourite occupations

, Of genius
are calculated to increase all its peculiarities to ,
nourish that lofty pride which di sdains the little

ness O f prudence and the restrictions
, of or der ,
and by indulgence to increase that se n sibili ty

, ,
B URNS .
28 7
which , in the present form O f o ur existence i s ,
sc arcely compatible with peace and happiness ,
even when ac companied wit h the choicest gifts

”
o f fortune !
This is wort h all that has ever been said on
“ ”
the subj ect of the poetic temperament ,
and
no apology , we trust is needed for the length
,
of the quotation .
The rapid progress of his disorder both ,
bodily and mental is exhibited in the desponding

,
tenor of his letters from the period , o f his re
lin q uishin g his agricultural pursuits . Indo

lence the baneful attendant of morbid sensi
,
bilit y , ag gravated his hypo chondria . Idleness

bec ame preferable to a distasteful occupation ;
and idleness as usual was followed by miseries
, ,
which rendered existence intolerable with out

excitement . There is no habit gains so imper
ce
pt ibly on the hypochondriac as that of in t e m
28 8 B URNS .
er an ce The melancholy m an flies to s t im u

p .
lating draughts for a momentary relief but the ,
r em e dv must be increased in proportion to the

frequency o f its repetition ; and in proportion as
the Sp i ri ts are ex al ted by any stimulant the
stomach is debilitated : in course of time the
irritabili t y o f the latter organ extending
, t o t he
brain the sen ses become tremblingly alive (if

,
t he r
exp es s ion may be used ) to external im
pressions ; in a wo r d the sensations are diseased

,
and this result is morbid sensibility . Burns

biographer has described the progress O f this
disorder in language which needs not o ur feeble
prai s e to recommend it . A s the strength o f
the body decays the volition fails ; in propor
tion as the sensa tions are soothed and gratified
the sensibility increases an d morbid sensibili ty
is the paren t of indolence because while it
, im
pairs the regulating power Of the mind it ex,

290 B URNS .
gen erally prevails in the conversation an d cor
respondence of dys peptic men .
In one epi stle he figures as the miserable

wretch de s cribed by
,
C icero , I pse s u um cor
e d en s hom in um v es t
ig ia v it a n S . A nd perhap s
in the ne xt
b m l d i ligh ly hi t h
His os o
’
s or s ts t on s ron e ,
A d ll h d y
n a u u m d pi i
t e a an n ac c s to e s r t
Li f hi m b
ts h g u d wi h h
a ov ef l h ugh t e ro n t c ee r u t o ts .
”
H ypochondria is the malady in whic h extreme

pass ions mee t . The most ludicrou s lines Co w
p er ever wrote to u se his , o wn words were ,
writt en in the saddest mood ; and but for that

saddest mood had never perhaps been wri t ten
,
at all . S u ch bursts of viv a city are by no mean s

incom patible with the deepest gloom In
'
. on e
of hi s letters , B urns thus speaks of his de
j ec ti on I have been for some time pining

B RNS
U .
291
u n der secret wretchedness ; the pang o f d isa p
pointme t the sting Of pride

n , , an d some w and er
ing s t abs of remorse set t le on my vital s like vul
tures when my attention is
, n ot called away by
t he claims o f society or the vagaries of the muse
, .
E ven in the hour of soci al mirth my gaiety is

the m adness o f an intoxicated cri m inal under
the hands of the executioner . In an other let
ter he speaks of his consti t ution being blasted
a b or i in s
g with a deep in c urable taint o f melan
c hol that poisoned his existence
y .
To M r C unni n gham he writes

.
, C anst thou
n ot minister to a mind diseased ; canst thou
speak peace and rest to a soul t ost
. on a sea of
troubles without, on e friendly star to gui de her

c ourse and dreading that the next surge may
,
overwhelm her ? C anst thou give to a frame

tremblingly alive to the tor t ures of suspence ,
the stability and hardihood of the roc k tha t

29 2 B U RN S .
braves the blast ? If thou canst n ot do the

least of these why ,
w ouldest thou disturb me in
my miseries with thy inquiries after me A nd
to the same correspondent about a fortn ight ,
before his death he Speaks of his su fferings in a

,
sadder strain . A las !my friend , the voice of
the har d will soon be heard among you no

more — Y ou would not know me if you sa w
—
me pale emaciated and so feeble as occasion
, ,
ally to need help from my chai n — M y spirits

fle d ! fled —
but I can no more on the subj ect .
”
H e finishes by alluding to the probable redu e
tion in his salary in consequence , of his illness ,
to fi v e -and-t hirty pounds . H e entreats his

friend to move the commissioners of excise to
”
grant the full salary . If they do not , he
continues , I must lav my account with an
exit truly en poe te . If I die not of di sease I ,
m ust peri sh o f hunger .

29 4 B URNS .
his mental system liable to inordinate impres

,
sions — to fever o f body as well as of mind This .
predisposition to disease strict tempe

rance and diet regular exercise an d sal ad Sleep
, ,
might have subdued h abits of a very di fferent

,
”
n ature strengthened and inflamed .
I n this brief observation is concentrated all

the knowledge that is to be gathered from books
on the s ubj ect o f the literary m alad y as indi ,
gestion may be pre-e m l n en t ly called . There is

n ot a word of it which demands not the most
s erious attention fr om e very individual who is
employed in literary pursuits ; he may gather
from it that excess in wine is n ot the only in
temperance ; but that excessive application to

studious habits is another kind of intem perance
no less inj urious to the constitution than the
fo r mer .
B URNS . 295
Burn s wrestled with his disorder in want and

w retchedness till O ctober 1 795 ; about which
ti m e he was seiz ed with his last ill n es s— a rheu
matic fever it appears was the
, ,
e ffect of cold caught in returning from a t avern

be numbed and intoxicated . H is appetite from
the first attack failed him his hands shook and
, ,
his voice trembled on any exertion or emotion .
H is pulse became weaker and more rapid and ,
pai n in the larger j o m t s and hands and feet

, , ,
deprived him of the j e n o vm en t of refreshing

sleep . T OO much dej ected in his spirits and ,
t oo well aware of his real situation to entertain

hopes Of recovery he was ever musing
,
on the
approaching desolation of his fa m ily and his ,
spirits sunk into a uniform gloom . In June he

was recommended to go into the country and
”
impatient of medical advice , says his biog ra
296 B URNS .
pher as well as f every sp ecies of control

‘
, o ,
he determined for himself to try the e ffec ts o f
bath ing in the sea .

’
Burns ,
however ,
dis
t in c tly says in t wo of his letters ,
th is ex
t r aor d in ar y rem edy for rheumatism was pre
scribed by his physician ; The medical
men ,
”
he wr ote to M r C unningham
.
,
“
tell
me that my las t and only chance is bathing
”
and country quarters an d ridi n g ,
.
F or the sake of the faculty I tru st that ,
Burns wa s mistaken in the m at t e r , fo r '

no
medical man of common sen se could think that
'
a patient sinking under rheumatism and shat ,
t er ed in constitution was a ,
fit subj ec t fo r SO
v iolent a remedy as the cold bath . No m edi cal

man can consider without shuddering the mis
, ,
chief it m u st have produced in the case o f
Burns . A t first he imagined that the bathing

29 8 B URNS .
children o f genius ,
resolution in small
,
unfor t unat e in most things .
END OF VOL . L
LON D ON
I B O TS O N A N D P A L M ER , P R I N T ER S , S A TO Y ST R E E T , ST R AN D .
M ESS RS S AUN DE RS AN D O TLEY
.
H A VE J US T PU B L I SHE D T H E
FO LLO W ING I NTE RE S TI N G WO RKS .
I .
In 1 v ol . 8 v o m ap, .
AND ITS RESOUR CE S;

g i ti
J un i cipal O r an z a on an d Fr e e T r a d e : t he S t at e an d P r os p ect of En g
C o m m e r c e i n t he E as t ,
Ne w A dmi i i n s t r at on o f G r eec e I t s R e v e n e , u an d N at i lPon a os s e s s o i

Bx D A V I D UR Q UHAR I ' ‘
, ESQ .
II
ih p l at e s
.
In 1 v ol. 8vo w t . m ap an d ,
A S UBAL T E RN S ’
F URL O UGH;
pt iv e
es c r i of Scen es in v ar i ous P art s of t he U I T N ED S T A T ES U ER PP aI
du i g
,
LOW E R C A N A DAS , NEW BR U NS W I C K , an d N O V A S C OT I A r n t he

umm
,
S er A
an d ut um n of 1 832 .
BY L EU T
I . E T CO KE
. . , 4 5t h Re gim en t .
III
l p a d pl te s ih
.
In 2 vo s . 8 vo w t . ma s n a ,
RAVE L S IN T U R K E Y, G R E E C E , 8x
Wi t h a Cr ui se BL A S w i t h
i n t he CK BA t heCA P I TA N P A S H A .
BY LI EUT A D O LP HU S . S LA D E R N , . .
S E ND E
CO i d DI r I O N rev s e
'
an d c orr ec t e d .
IV
l i h E hi g by C ik h k
.
In 3 vo s .
, w t tc n s ru s an ,
L U C I E N G R E V I L L E
VO Y A G E t o an d fr om IND I A & c &c
The , . .
A C O R N E T I N T H E Hon E A S T IND I A C O M P A N Y S S ER I E
’
Br .
V C .
V
l
.
p os t 8 o In 2 vo s . v .
S I R GUY DE LUSI GNAN ‘
A TA LE ITALY O F .
Br M I SS K N I G H T ,
A u th or o f DI NA R B A S,
”
M A R U S FLA M I N I U S
C
”
, L AT I UM , 54 6.
Wor ks P ublis hed by M wer e S a un d er s . an d 0 tl y
e .
VI .
M R D I S RA ELI S
.
’
N EW WO RK .
TH E W ON D RO U S T ALE OF AL R O Y .
po s t 8 v o In 3 vo s l . .
w
T hi i
e re o n
w k w h i ch m t b
s s a yg
or lly d d d w i t h d m i t i
ly i d f c t t h t d i y p w w h i ch it d l p —A t l
e e re n e o
us e v er
e e x r aor
e n e ra
n ar o
re a
er
, an rea
e ve o
a
e s."
ra on
n a4
M i g d l i t m g ific c d f cy b l t ly p d i g l 1
i ic f t
as s v e r an e ur , ux ur an a n en e, an an a so u e ro a 0
wi t h h m t ch
, a re t c t e i th i
os t d i y m ti
a ra f er st e a ur es n s e x r ao r n ar e an a on o Cl
'
e g i u ”— F ig Qu t ly
en s. or e n a r er .
G iu i t m p d
en s y p g — A t h m um
s s a e o n e ve r a e .
”
e e .
W c d i lly c m m d t h
e or a m k bl l um t t h t t t i t h y
re o en e s e re ar a e vo e. o e a en e
—
on
qu t ies bly c i on aN w W t hly 51 g

re e ve.
”
e . on 0 .
V II .
con d Edi i t on l g d I 2 l p 8 wi h
c orr e c t e d an d e n ar e . n vo s. os t v o ., t
V ig n et t e s ,
CH ARA C T E R I S T I C S O F W O M EN '
By M R S J AM E S O N . .
A b G if l
t er a r y
u
ch i g c
e a ut u
a z e t t e.
y an dh i d tou n o m m e n t ar on t he e ar t an d m n of wom an .
ly d l i h f l l
Two t ru e g t — ch i g k ch u v o um e s t he m os t ar m n o f a ll t he w or s of a ar m
”-
1 tcr B lac kwood
. .
Fe w b k h c om e un d e r o ur n o t ic b etter d i g t he s t ro n g e st
m m e n d at l o n
c ut s
oo
a re n o t o n
s
It
a v e e ve r
18 I n
ly t t h h i g h t b ut l o
o ur
e
p o wer to
es
b e s tow ,
a s o of
t h
e,
an t he
t he r a re s t
w or
e s erv n
k of
o rd e r u
M rs
-O f
. J ch
su
a m e so n
an o r(
;
cd p— k k l t g th
,
i t i th l ff w w m ot ot He r w o r , t a it
t d l i gh t ful f m d
e , as I s e e o en o oss e s s . en a o e er,
li m
”
t he m os e N o o e rn es . ew M on t hly Ill ag .
V III .
M RS . C H A R LE S G O RE S ’
NBw WO RK .
In 3 vo s l p . os t 8v o .
P O L I S H T A L E S ,
I r: C O N r B DB R A r B S '
or LUBBO e , r HB
'
M I LL o r M A R I E M O NT A N D I ,
' '
BEE FA RM .
Ti h s is the he at p d c t i f p p l w i t —C u t J u l
ro u on o a o u ar r te n o r o rn a .
I t is e xa c ly d p d t t h t f f l i g i hi c t y t w d P l d
t a a te o e st a e o ee n n t s o un r o ar s o an .
cc la t or .
M
Th
ur
es e
a d
ta l d
es
M ar
t b k d m g t h b t wh i ch m d l i t t u
es erve
yl in P
o
a nt
e r an e a on e es o er n e ra re

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TH E

WH OSE TASTE FO R LITER T

AC Q UAINTAN C E I VITH A L L S B ECTS

IT is generally admitted that literary men are

both of mind and body ; that worldly p ro s e

E ccentricity is the badge of all their tribe

fame and frailty would almost seem to be inse

dained that such should be the case to check ,

the pride o f human intellect , and to render

I t is the unfortunate tendency of literary

of the closet and to render them

ings o f their fellow-men . T heir kno wledge of

the w orld is in a grea t mea s ure derived from

books not from an acquaintan ce with its act ive

du t ies ; and the c onsequence is that when they ,

venture into its busy haunts they bring with ,

them a spirit of uncompromising independence ,

which arrays itself at once against e v er v

dice they have to encounter : such a spirit is but

If the felicitou s example of the poet of t he draw

able life they find them selves still less

genius in a common -place conversation ,

tion of half a volume would occas ion in their

their ardou r and endeavour to assume an awk

ward air of fashionable nonchalance ; they

be at ease but they are on the stilts

them down to kiss the crimson robe o f good

society with graceful homage . But these are

excessive mental application . Way wardness of

under such circumstances the errors o f genius

causes . The fact is the carriage

are calculated to weary e v en friends and its ,

v ery glory to m ake bitter ri v als of its contem

A ccordingly we ﬁnd that its ashes are hardly

the public taste is satiated with the sport . It

conduct of genius begins to be underst ood and ,

its character to be fairly represented .

The l uminary itself at last engages that atten

time to ascertai n there was such a poe m in ex

eight thousa n d copies of a moder n novel have

years ago the indiscretions of S helley had ren

and whatever were his follies his virtues are ,

beginning to be k n own and his poe try to be

j ustly appreciated . It unfortunately happen s

are those w ho ta ke upon them the arduou s

whose hands the masters of the world

not be questioned even when a Byron is at its

bar genius has n o t the privilege of beingj udged

great o f impannelling a j u ry of its fellows .

But ho w few of those who fasten on the in

ﬁ r m it ie s of great talent , for the purpose of

gnawing away its fame like those northern ,

insec ts that prey

ho w very fe w who track the errors of geniu s to

tin n ed , of bodily exercise perhaps wholly neg

Ho w few of the fatal friends who violate the

vailing appeti t e for li t erary gossip ever think , of

referring the imperfections they drag into

temperament deranged by ill-regulated , or ex

are so unfavorable to he al th ! S uicide might ,

o f those who had crawled into his conﬁdence

imperfections so many pegs for disquisitions on

O f all persons who sacriﬁce their peace for