iv 



3fEM0IR OF THE AUTHOR. 



lias been made, as connected with times of comparative 

 repose, is strictly in accordance with the nature of man. 

 When bj a reflective process the mind is enabled to turn 

 in upon itself, it is necessarily most thoughtful, and less 

 disposed to require external and adventitious means of 

 occupation or enjoyment. In colloquial phraseology, the 

 stillest streams are said to be the deepest ; and this 

 sentiment is iu variably confirmed by experience. Very 

 commonly, in public life, those whose names are most 

 heard of, and whose characters and performances seem, 

 and justly, most brilliant, are not the most useful members 

 of a popular assembly or a state. In our legisla- 

 tive assembly, for instance, the laborious workers on 

 committees perform often most ef&ciently the practical 

 business of the House and the country. Nor is this, 

 indeed, matter of surprise, as calm reflection is most con- 

 ducive to a close and proper consideration of questions, 

 undisturbed by personal motives of ostentatious display, 

 or by any of those external influences or attractions which 

 are calculated to divert the attention from the subject on 

 which it is exerted. Both are useful in their several 

 departments, whether the brilliant orator or the practical 

 man of business ; but, to recur to the statement with 

 which we commenced these remarks, the claims of the 

 former will greatly preponderate, in general estimation, 

 over those of the latter. 



In connexion with the subject with which we are more 

 immediately concerned, the commendations that have been 

 lavished in all ages on a life of literary retirement, and 

 sometimes even on one involving mere withdrawal from 

 public business and addiction to rural pm'suits, are too many 

 to enumerate, and are, besides, sufficiently known. To 

 confine ourselves, however, to those authors with whom the 

 subject of this memoir was so intimately acquainted. 



