Those unfortunate habits which he had formed, and whose spell was already too strong to be broken, comported very poorly with that close attention, that accuracy and persevering vigour, which are essential to the merchant. The drudgery of retailing and of book-keeping soon became intolerable; yet he was obliged to preserve appearances by remaining continually at his stand. Besides these unpropitious habits, there was still another obstacle to his success, in the natural kindness of his temper. "He could not find it in his heart" to disappoint any one who came to him for credit; and he was very easily satisfied by apologies for non-payment. He condemned, in himself, this facility of temper, and foresaw the embarrassments with which it threatened him; but he was unable to overcome it. Even with the best prospects, the confinement of such a business would have been scarcely supportable; but with those which now threatened him, his store became a prisTo make the matter still worse, the joys of the chase, joys now to him forbidden, echoed around him every morning, and by their contrast, and the longings which they excited, contributed to deepen the disgust which he had taken to his employments.

on.

From these painful reflections, and the gloomy forebodings which darkened the future, he sought, at first, a refuge in music, for which it seems he had a natural taste, and he learned to play well on the violin and on the flute. From music he passed to books, and, having procured a few light and elegant authors, acquired, for the first time, a relish for reading.

He found another relief, too, in the frequent opportunities now afforded him of pursuing his favourite study of the human character. The character of every customer underwent this scrutiny; and that, not with reference either to the integrity or solvency of the individual, in which one would suppose that Mr. Henry would feel himself most interested; but in relation to the structure of his mind, the general cast of his opinions, the motives and principles which influenced his actions, and what may be called the philosophy of character.

In pursuing these investigations, he is said to have resorted to arts, apparently so far above his years, and which looked so much like an afterthought, resulting from his future eminence, that I should hesitate to make the statement, were it not attested by so many witnesses, and by some who cannot be suspected of the capacity for having fabricated the fact. Their account of it, then, is this :-that whenever a company of his customers met in the store, (which frequently happened on the last day of che week,) and were themselves sufficiently gay and animated to talk and act as nature prompted, without concealment, with

out reserve, he would take no part in their discussions, but listen with a silence as deep and attentive as if under the influence of some potent charm. If, on the contrary, they were dull and silent, he would, without betraying his drift, task himself to set them in motion, and excite them to remark, collision, and exclamation. He was peculiarly delighted with comparing their characters, and ascertaining how they would severally act in given situations. With this viow he would state a hypothetic case, and call for their opinions one by one, as to the conduct which would be proper in it. If they differed, he would demand their reasons, and enjoy highly the debates in which he would thus involve them. But multiplying and varying those imaginary cases at pleasure, he ascertained the general course of human opinion, and formed, for himself, as it were, a graduated scale of the motives and conduct which are natural to man. Sometimes he would entertain them with stories, gathered from his reading, or, as was more frequently the case, drawn from his own fancy, composed of heterogeneous circumstances, calculated to excite, by turns, pity, terror, resentment, indignation, contempt; pausing in the turns of his narrative, to ob serve the effect; to watch the different modes in which the passions expressed themselves, and learn the language of emotion from those children of nature.

In these exercises, Mr. Henry could have had nothing in view beyond the present gratification of a natural propensity. The advantages of them, however, were far more permanent, and gave the brightest colours to his future life. For those continual efforts to render himself intelligible to his plain and unlettered hearers, on subjects entirely new to them, taught him that clear and simple style which forms the best vehicle of thought to a popular assembly; while his attempts to interest and affect them, in order that he might hear from them the echo of nature's voice, instructed him in those topics of persuasion by which men were the most certainly to be moved, and in the kind of imagery and structure of language, which were the best fitted to strike and agitate their hearts. These constituted his excellences as an orator; and never was there a man, in any age, who possessed, in a more eminent degree, the lucid and nervous style of argument, the command of the most beautiful and striking imagery, or that language of passion which burns from soul to soul.

In the meantime, the business of the store was rushing headlong to its catastrophe. One year put an end to it. William was then thrown loose upon society, to which he was

I have seen an original letter from Col. John Henry to his son William, in which he remonstrates with him on his wild and dissipated course of life.

never afterward usefully attached; and Patrick was engaged for the two or three following years, in winding up this disastrous experiment as well as he could.

His misfortunes, however, seem not to have had the effect either of teaching him prudence or of chilling his affections. For, at the early age of eighteen, we find him married to a Miss Shelton, the daughter of an honest farmer in the neighbourhood, but in circumstances too poor to contribute effectually to her support. By the joint assistance of their parents, however, the young couple were settled on a small farm, and here, with the assistance of one or two slaves, Mr. Henry had to delve the earth, with his own hands, for subsistence. Such are the vicissitudes of human life! It is curious to contemplate this giant genius, destined in a few years to guide the councils of a mighty nation, but unconscious of the intellectual treasures which he possessed, encumbered, at the early age of eighteen, with the cares of a family; obscure, unknown, and almost unpitied; digging, with wearied limbs and with an aching heart, a small spot of barren carth, for bread, and blessing the hour of night which relieved him from toil.

Little could the wealthy and great of the land, as they rolled along the highway in splendour, and beheld the young rustic at work in the coarse garb of a labourer, covered with dust and melting in the sun, have suspected that this was the man who was destined not only to humble their pride, but to make the prince himself tremble on his distant throne, and to shake the brightest jewels from the British crown. Little, indeed, could he himself have suspected it; for amid the distresses which thickened around him at this time, and threatened him not only with obscurity but with famine, no hopes came to cheer the gloom, nor did there remain to him any earthly consolation, save that which he found in the bosom of his own family. Fortunately for him, there never was a heart which felt this consolation with greater force. No man ever possessed the domestic virtues in a higher degree, or enjoyed, more exquisitely, those pure delights which flow from the endearing relations of conjugal life.

Mr. Henry's want of agricultural skill, and his unconquer able aversion to every species of systematic labour, drove him, necessarily, after a trial of two years, to abandon this pursuit

There is reason to believe, however, that at a later period, he may have reformed, since a gentleman, to whom the manuscript of this work was submitted, notes on this passage, that when he was at college at Williamsburgh, he recollects to have scen William Henry a member of the assembly, from the county of Fluvanna; that he was called colonel, and was, he afterward understood, pretty well provided as to fortune.

altogether. His next step seems to have been dictated by absolute despair; for, selling off his little possessions, at a sacrifice for cash, he entered, a 'second time, on the inauspicious business of merchandise. Perhaps he flattered himself that he would be able to profit by his past experience, and conduct this experiment to a more successful issue. But if he did so, he deceived himself. He soon found that he had not changed his character, by changing his pursuits. His early habits still continued to haunt him. The same want of method, the same facility of temper, soon became apparent by their ruinous ef fects. He resumed his violin, his flute, his books, his curious inspection of human nature; and not unfrequently ventured to shut up his store, and indulge himself in the favourite sports of his youth.

His reading, however, began to assume a more serious character. He studied geography, in which it is said that he be came an adept. He read, also, the charters and history of the colony. He became fond of historical works generally, particularly those of Greece and Rome; and, from the tenacity of his memory and the strength of his judgment, soon made himself a perfect master of their contents. Livy was his favourite; and having procured a translation, he became so much enamoured of the work, that he made it a standing rule to read it through, once at least, in every year, during the early part of his life.* The grandeur of the Roman character, so beautifulJy exhibited by Livy, filled him with surprise and admiration; and he was particularly enraptured with those vivid descriptions and eloquent harangues with which the work abounds. Fortune could scarcely have thrown in his way, a book better fitted to foster his republican spirit, and awaken the still dormant powers of his genius; and it seems not improbable, that the lofty strain in which he himself afterward both spoke and acted, was, if not originally inspired, at least highly raised, by the noble models set before him by this favourite author..

This second mercantile experiment was still more unfortu nate than the first. In a few years it left him a bankrupt, and placed him in a situation than which it is difficult to conceive one more wretched. Every atom of his property was now gone, his friends were unable to assist him any further; he had tried every means of support, of which he could suppose himself capable, and every one had failed; ruin was behind him; poverty, debt, want, and famine, before; and, as if his cup of misery was not already full enough, here were a suffering wife and children to make it overflow.

Judge Netson had this statement from Mr. Henry himself.

But with all his acuteness of feeling, Mr. Henry possessed great native firmness of character; and, let me add, great reliance, too, on that unseen arm which never long deserts the faithful. Thus supported, he was able to bear up under the heaviest pressure of misfortune, and even to be cheerful, under circumstances which would sink most other men into despair.

It was at this period of his fortunes, that Mr. Jefferson be came acquainted with him; and the reader, I am persuaded, will be gratified with that gentleman's own account of it. These are his words:" My acquaintance with Mr. Henry commenced in the winter of seventeen hundred and fifty-ninesixty. On my way to the college I passed the Christmas. holydays at Col. Dandridge's, in Hanover, to whom Mr. Henry was a near neighbour. During the festivity of the season, I met him in society every day, and we became well acquainted, although I was much his junior, being then in my seventeenth year, and he a married man.

"His manners had something of coarseness in them; his pas sion was music, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and it attached every one to him. You ask some account of his mind and information at this period; but you will recollect that we were almost continually engaged in the usual revelries of the season. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his idle disposition, prevented his engaging in any conversation which might give the measure either of his mind or information. Opportunity was not, indeed, wholly wanting; because Mr. John Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of Col. Dandridge. He was a man of science, and often introduced conversation on scientific subjects. Mr. Hen ry had, a little before, broken up his store, or rather it had broken him up; but his misfortunes were not to be traced, either in his countenance or conduct."

This cheerfulness of spirit, under a reverse of fortune so severe, is certainly a very striking proof of the manliness of his character. It is not, indeed, easy to conceive that a mind like Mr. Henry's could finally sink under any pressure of adversity. Such a mind, although it may not immediately perceive whither to direct its efforts, must always possess a consciousness of power sufficient to buoy it above despondency. But, be this as it may, of Mr. Henry it was certainly true, as Dr. Johnson has observed of Swift, that "he was not one of those who, having lost one part of life in idleness, are tempted to throw away the remainder in despair."

It seems to be matter of surprise, that even yet, amid all those various struggles for subsistence, the powers of his mind had not so far developed themselves as to suggest to any friend