AUTHENTICATED NARRATIVE OF THE "AUTHOR 

 OF LACON." 



" I have liv'd long enough, my term of life 

 Is fallen into the sear and yellow leaf: 

 And that which should accompany old age 

 As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends 

 I must not look to have ; but in their place 

 Curses not loud but deep." 



A NARRATIVE of the eccentricities, the follies, and even the 

 crimes of the children of genius, never fail to awaken curiosity, if 

 not to excite interest and sympathy ; we love to throw our eyes on 

 whatever be original in character, without inquiring whether or not 

 it be attached to a name that presents any thing worthy of our ad- 

 miration. The unfortunate notoriety acquired by the author of La- 

 con, may be ascribed as much, if not more, to circumstances uncon- 

 nected with himself as to his own immediate actions. Colton has 

 left behind him " imperishable evidence" of a mind that might have 

 purchased " golden opinions from all sorts of men ;" while the major 

 part of his life presents little more than a history of a career, disas- 

 trous and deplorable in the extreme. 



His mysterious disappearance at the dark and dismal epoch of the 

 Hertfort trials, naturally brought his name before the public eye, in 

 conjunction with those of Hunt and Thurtell ; although it is by no 

 means difficult to imagine that a man of such habits would frequent 

 the same places, and mix in the same company with these men, and 

 consequently become their reputed associate. It is but justice, how- 

 ever, to state in this place, that the author of Laconhad nothing what- 

 ever to do in that inhuman affair. 



Avarice, of all other of the human passions, seems to have been 

 the " predominating vice" of Colton ; and for which he was remark- 

 able at a very early age ! While yet a boy at school we can trace in 

 him the elements of his succeeding life. To gratify this most unto- 

 ward propensity, it may be said of him, that " he had lost the world, 

 and was content to lose it.'' 



No man was ever more generally known for the number and in- 

 congruity of his pursuits, or presents a stronger example of a mind at 

 once sordid and sublime ! To a refined and accurate remembrance 

 of ancient erudition, he joined a familiar and habitual knowledge of 

 modern literature. His LACON alone attests the depth and univer- 

 sality of his powers, the strength of his arguments, and the classical 

 purity of his style. Strange that a mind so bountifully stored should 

 have branched out into such a compound of heterogeneous occu- 

 pations. 



Colton had successfully passed through the tedious years allotted 

 to the education of a " foundation boy" at Eton, had obtained a fel- 

 lowship at King's College, Cambridge, possessed one of the quarters 



