Iir.] MELANCHOLY HOURS. 339 



that title is usurped by mere makers of experiments and 

 inventors of blacking cakes, I am only known by the ap- 

 pellation of Melancholy. So far from being of a discon- 

 tented disposition, my very essence is pious and resigned 

 contentment. I teach my votaries to support every vicis- 

 situde of fortune with calmness and fortitude. It is mine 

 to subdue the stormy propensities of passion and vice, to 

 foster and encourage the principles of benevolence and 

 philanthropy, and to cherish and bring to perfection the 

 seeds of virtue and wisdom. Though feared and hated 

 by those who, like my accuser, are ignorant of my nature, 

 I am courted and cherished by all the truly wise, the 

 good, and the great; the poet woos me as the goddess 

 of inspiration ; the true philosopher acknowledges him- 

 self indebted to me for his most expansive views of 

 human nature ; the good man owes to me that hatred of 

 the wa-ong and love of the right, and that disdain for 

 the consequences which may result from the performance 

 of his duties, which keeps him good ; and the religious 

 flies to me for the only clear and unencumbered view of 

 the attributes and perfections of the Deity. So far from 

 being idle, my mind is ever on the wing in the regions 

 of fancy, or that true philosophy which opens the book 

 of human nature, and raises the soul above the evils in- 

 cident to life. If I am useless, in the same degree were 

 Plato and Socrates, Locke and Paley useless ; it is true 

 that my immediate influence is confined, but its efl^'ects 

 are disseminated by means of literature over every age 

 and nation, and mankind, in every generation and in 

 every clime, may look to me as their remote illuminator, 

 the original spring of the principal intellectual benefits 

 tliey possess. But as there is no good without its attend- 

 ant evil, so I have an elder sister, called Frenz}^ for whom 

 I have often been mistaken, who sometimes follows close 

 on my steps, and to her I owe much of the obloquy which 

 is attached to my name, though the puerile accusation 

 which has just been brought against me, turns on points 

 which apply more exclusively to myself." 



She ceased, and a dead pause ensued. The multitude 

 seemed struck with the fascination of her utterance and 



