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he adulterated his taste and corrupted his appetite by admi- 

 nistering the poison ; or depraved his understanding by the 

 force of example. For such is the power of sympathy, that 

 the example of those we are taught by nature to respect, 

 operates irresistibly upon us, and their habits insensibly become 

 ours. While yet a schoolboy, intoxication had its charms foi 

 him ; and though familiar and delighted with the classics, and 

 enriched with a store of scholastic knowledge, these elegants 

 enjoyments were not sufficient lo exclude this degrading pas^- 

 sion : and the wit that was inspired by his genius, and invigo- 

 rated by his learning, was lavished on the meanest associates, 

 amidst the lowest debauchery. The habit was confirmed :■ 

 strong in childhood, inveterate in youth, hopeless in manhood. 

 Yet in every stage those numerous and illustrious patrons, 

 whose protection his extraordinary genius had procured him, 

 endeavoured by advice, exhortation, and threats, to rescue him 

 from the perdition tovvard which he was hurrying. But in 

 vain : vice was added to vice, depravity to depravity, out- 

 rage to outrage ; until at length forsaken and abandoned by 

 his disappointed admirers and indignant friends, by turns an 

 importunate beggar and desponding recluse, now rioting in 

 vile and extravagant excesses, now sunk in abject contempt 

 and misery, at the early age of seven and twenty he died of 

 a lingering disease, the victim of one ungovernable habit, 

 that debased a noble and generous mind, a cultivated intel- 

 lect and exalted genius, those strongest evidences of our im- 

 mortal nature, to that grovelling level at which man ceases 



