144 LIF E AND LETTERS OF JAMES GATES PERCIVAL. 



he reversed the process of nature, which makes it a part of 

 greatness that it is a simple thing to itself, however much of a 

 marvel it may be to other men. He discovered his own genius, 

 as he supposed a thing impossible had the genius been real. 

 Donne never wrote a profounder verse than 



Who knows his virtue s name and place, hath none. 



Percival s life was by no means a remarkable one, except, 

 perhaps, in the number of chances that seem to have been 

 offered him to make something of himself, if anything were pos 

 sibly to be made. He was never without friends, never without 

 opportunities, if he could have availed himself of them. It is 

 pleasant to see Mr. Ticknor treating him with that considerate 

 kindness which many a young scholar can remember as shown 

 so generously to himself. But nothing could help Percival, 

 whose nature had defeat worked into its very composition. He 

 was not a real, but an imaginary man. His early attempt at 

 suicide (as Mr. Ward seems to think it) is typical of him. He 

 is not the first young man who, when crossed in love, has spoken 

 of * loupin o er a linn, nor will he be the last. But that anyone 

 who really meant to kill himself should put himself resolutely in 

 the way of being prevented, as Percival did, is hard to believe. 

 Chateaubriand, the arch sentimentalist of these latter days, had 

 the same harmless velleity of self-destruction, enough to scare 

 his sister and so give him a smack of sensation, but a very 

 different thing from the settled will which would be really 

 perilous. Shakespeare, always true to Nature, makes Hamlet 

 dally with the same exciting fancy. Alas ! self is the one thing 

 the sentimentalist never truly wishes to destroy ! One remark 

 able gift Percival seems to have had, which may be called 

 memory of the eye. What he saw he never forgot, and this 

 fitted him for a good geological observer. How great his power 

 of combination was, which alone could have made him a great 

 geologist, we cannot determine. But he seems to have shown 

 but little in other directions. His faculty of acquiring foreign 

 tongues we do not value so highly as Mr. Ward. We have 

 known many otherwise inferior men who possessed it. Indeed, 

 the power to express the same nothing in ten different languages 

 is something to be dreaded rather than admired. It gives a 

 horrible advantage to dulness. The best thing to be learned 

 from Percival s life is that he was happy for the first time when 

 taken away from his vague pursuit of the ideal, and set to 

 practical work. 



