had written, like that of Cicero for Milo, were not, delivered by their author, who did not appear; but they were read for me by my friend and fellow student Andrew Robeson. I once, however, with this same gentleman, risked my declaiming powers, in a scene of Venice Preserved; but in what character I appeared I do not remember. I also involved myself about this period, in me-taphysical subtilties; and with Mr. James Hutchinson, the late doctor Hutchinson, who then lived with Bartram the apothecary, and with whom I had become intimate, I frequently reasoned upon fate, "fixed fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute," &c. Our acquaintance found cement in the circumstances of our both being Bucks county men and exactly of an age. The doctor's father Randal Hutchinson, a Quaker, did the mason-work of my father's house at Fairview and agreeably to the custom in the country, resided with him while employed in it. From family tradition, for I do not remember old Randal, he was what might be called a queer put Being once called upon for his song on occasion of a little merriment, he declined it with the dry remark, that he could do his own singing: and so indeed it appeared, as he was in the habit every evening after work, of singing out in rustic drone to his hands as-sembled round him, a celebrated political poem of that time, entitled The washing of the Blackmoor white. It was levelled, if I do not mistake, at the aristocracy of the day; and if so, the doctor had a sort of hereditary right to that zeal against the WELL BORN of his own, which has rendered his name a favorite signature with democratic essayists. But for all this, he was a friendly man, and no foe to good company; and as to political propensities, they seem in some men to be inherent instincts, wholly independent of the reasoning faculty, and no more to be resisted than a constitutional tendency to be fat or lean: A sort of restless spirits these, prone to act, to confederate and intrigue; and who, though not absolutely bad at heart, have yet a lamentable itch for mischief. If there are such men, my quondam friend was one of them. The old and the austere may declaim as they will against the follies and vices of youth, the natural propensities will still prevail; and for one student of law that is restrained by the solid eloquence of professor Blackstone from "whiling away the awkward interval from childhood to twenty one," two or three perhaps are led astray by the seducing rake of doctor Hoadley. Ranger, returning to the temple in a disordered dress, after a night of riot and debauchery, has unfortunately, more allurements for a young man of metal, and still more unfortunately for the generality of young ladies, to whom it is his first desire to be agreeable, than the sober, orderly student, pale with the incipient lucubrations of twenty years. I will not undertake to say, that authors are right in exhibiting such characters as a Dorimant, a Jones, a Pickle, a Ranger, or a Charles Surface, but in so doing they draw from nature, and address themselves to the taste of their readers Has ever novel or comedy been popular, whose hero is a man of strict morality and virtue? The Grandison of Richardson, the Bevil of Steel, and Henry of Cumberland, are but insipid characters in the eyes of those who are customers for the productions of the novelist and dramatist. Happy indeed are they, who, without being lost to the feelings of youth, can yet indulge them with discretion and moderation; and who do not forget, that although the fashionable gaieties may for a time recommend them to the thoughtless of both sexes, it is application to business that must provide the means of ease, contentment and respectability in life. Such was not my case. I wanted strength of mind for the judgment of Hercules, and was for seizing the present moment with Horace. I might not live to be old, and if I did, what were its dull satisfactions in comparison of the vivid, enthusiastic enjoyments of youth! In this temper, I plunged deep into dissipation, with the exception of gaming, having never found much attraction in the fortuitous evolutions of a shuffled pack of cards, or a shaken dice box. But the pleasures of the table, the independence of tavern revelry, and its high minded contempt of the plodding and industrious, were irresistibly fascinating to me. Though without the slightest addiction to liquor, nothing was more delightful to me than to find myself a member of a large bottle association sat in for serious drinking; the table officers appointed, the demi-johns filled, the bottles arranged, with the other necessary dispositions for such engagements; and I put no inconsiderable value upon myself for my supposed" potency in potting," or, in modern phrase, my being able to carry off a respectable quantity of wine. Although a grievous head-ach was the usual penalty of my debauch, the admonition vanished with the indisposition, while a play or some other frivolous reading, beguiled the hours of penance. I blush to think of the many excesses I was guilty of while involved in this vortex of intemperance. Wine rarely deprived me of my feet, but it sometimes inflamed me to madness; and, in the true spirit of chivalry, the more extravagant an enterprize the greater was the temptation to achieve it. Every occupation requires its peculiar talents, and where mischief is the object, the spirit of noble daring is certainly an accomplishment. Hence, my energy on these occasions was duly appreciated by my companions. As to those convivial qualifications, which are wont to set the table in a roar, I had never any pretentions to them, though few enjoyed them with more relish. But these talents are often fatal to the possessor and they hastened, if they did not induce, the catastrophe of poor Kinnersley, a son of the already mentioned teacher at the academy. As he was several years older than myself, he belonged to an elder class in the school of riot; yet I have sometimes fallen in with him. He had not indeed the gibes and flashes of merriment, which are attributed to the jester of Horwendillus's court; but of all men I have seen, he had the happiest knack of being gross without being disgusting, and consequently, of entertaining a company sunk below the point of attic refinement. Modest by nature, and unobtrusive, probably from a conviction that he thereby gave zest to his talent, he always suffered himself to be called upon for his song, which he then generally accompanied with his violin, to the exquisite delight of his hearers. He possessed humor without grimace or buffoonery; and in the character of the drunken man, which he put on in some of his songs, and which may be endured as an imitation, he was pronounced by Hallam to be unequalled. But unfortunately, the character became at length too much a real one; and it is to be lamented, that one whose exterior indicated a most ingenuous disposition, should prematurely close his career by habitual intemperance. The study of the law, as may be supposed, went on heavily during this round of dissipation. I occasionally looked into Blackstone, but carefully kept aloof from the courts, where my attendance as a future candidate for the bar, was not to be dispensed with. Light reading was the day's amusement; and, as already said, it chiefly consisted of poetry and plays. The novels of Fielding and Smollet I had read; but as for those of Richardson, I had some how taken up the idea, that they were formal stuff, consisting chiefly of the dull ceremonials relating to courtship and marriage, with which, superannuated aunts and grandmothers torment the young misses subjected to their control. But taking up one evening the last volume of Clarissa, I accidentally opened it at a letter relating to the ducl between Lovelace and Morden. This arrested my attention, and I soon found that the concerns of men, not less than those of the other sex, were both understood and spiritedly represented by the author, I immediately procured the work, and read it with more interest than any tale had ever excited in me before. The cruel, unmerited misfortunes of Clarissa, often steeped me in tears: yet the unrelenting villainy of her betrayer, was so relieved by great qualities, so entirely was he the gentleman when he chose to put it on, that the feeling of detestation was intermingled with admiration and respect; and had figure, rank, fortune, borne me out in the resemblance, his, of all the characters I had met with, would, in the vanity of my heart, have most prompted me to an imitation; though abhorring as much as any one his vile plotting and obduracy. Like the young man mentioned in the letters of lord Chesterfield, I almost aspired to the catastrophe, as well as the accomplishments of this libertine destroyed. Nor was I singular in this ambition: Lovelace has formed libertines, as MacHeath has formed highwaymen. A young American, when at the temple, between forty and fifty years ago, played the part of the former with too fatal success, of which, I have been told, he preserved, and sometimes shewed the story, written by himself: and that this character was the model which the young lord Lyttleton prescribed to himself, appears to me evident from the cast of some of his letters. Rowe's Lothario, which doctor Johnson tells us is the outline of Lovelace, is ever more favored by an audience than the virtuous and injured Altamont, whom, even the circumspect Mr. Cumberland brands with the epithet of wittol : And is there a young and giddy female heart, that does not beat in unison with Calista's when she exciaims : I swear I could not see the dear betrayer Richardson, it is true, could not have made his sto ry either natural or interesting without ascribing. |