1797-] - 
*< Heav’n does with him as we with torches do, 
66 Not light them for themfelves, but others.” 
SHAKSPEARE, 
The page of hiftory, the eloquent com- 
plaints of fages, philofophers, and poets, 
feem to confirmthis notion. “ The innate 
melancholy of genius,’ is almoft pro- 
verbial. 
Yet plaufible as this reafoning may 
appear, it is fil] inconclufive. The 
pleafures of intelleét, which confiitute a 
vatt fum, fhould be balanced againft its 
pains. Cultivation of mind tends to give 
dignity and independence of character. 
Talents are conneéted with power, which 
all human beings pant after; they flatter 
the nobleft ambition, and govern the 
world with uncontrollable fway. The 
mere pleafures of /en/e (to ufe the term in 
an appropriate fignification) are necef- 
farily tranfient, and liable to degenerate 
into fatiety and difguft; unlets taken 
moderately, and at diftant intervals, they 
quickly exhauft by their intenfity, and 
pall by their repetition. Their intem- 
perate indulgeace has a tendency to cloud 
the faculties, to blunt the fenfibility, and 
to brutalize the being. The enjoyments 
of intelleét are incalculably more varied, 
more conftant, more in the power of the 
individual, and lefs dependent upon locad 
circumftances and externalevents. How 
fhort is the exiftence of the man of fenle, 
if meafured by confcioufnefs, compared 
with that of the intelle¢tual man! The 
former ftupidly dozes between, or lan- 
guidly endures, the intervals of his gra- 
tifications; he either diffipates himfelf 
with an abfent and vacant mind, or 
drudges through the day, ina dull me- 
chanical round of fpiritlefs occupation. 
The latter finds materials for reflection and 
eomparifon in every object, in every inci- 
dent ; nothing, to him, is barren of im-’ 
provement or entertainment, nothing 
abfolutely indifferent. If he mixes in 
fociety, he perceives in every character, 
he draws from every converfation, fub- 
jects for future meditation: in folitude, 
he converfes, in his library, with the 
heroes, the legiflators, the wits, and the 
fages, of all countries, and of all periods : 
he expatiates in a boundle(s field of know- 
| ledge, or he refigns himfelf to the grand _ 
and enchanting reveries of the imagina- 
tion. -His life is protratted by a con- 
{cioufnefs to every moment, he lives in a 
‘thoufand ideal fcenes and trantfaétions, 
he conjures up by his fancy, or with his 
pen, as by the power of magic, new. 
worlds, new beings, new combinations, 
as it were a new creation, which, a mo- 
Are Mental Talents productive of Happine/s ? 
359° 
ment before, feemed to have no exift- 
ence. Even his forrows and difappoint- 
ments have in them I know not what 
of dignity and amelioration ; he is con- 
{cious of his own powers, he feels his 
own worth, and he contemns the injuftice 
of mankind; he becomes ftubborn under 
oppre!tion, he grows haughty in diftrefs, 
he wraps himfelf in the mantle of inte- 
grity, or confoles himfelf with the con- 
feisi{nefs of meric. If his heart. is 
pierced with anguifh for friends 
eftranged, or affections unrequited, a 
mournful magic mixes with his grief, he 
values himfelf on his capacity for emo- 
tions, which, while they rend, foften and 
humanize his fpirir. Even the convic- 
tion of error, while it humbles, exalts him ; 
he choofes to be wife by his own expe- 
rience, he feels that his reafon is unfolded 
by the ftrugele of his paflions, and he 
is fatishied to tafte the fruit. of know- 
ledge, though by overleaping the bounda- 
ries of Content. 
But fhould the preceding pifture, im- 
| perfectly ‘fketched, be acknowledged 
ideal; thould it be granted, that the pains 
of intelleét have hitherto, in many, or in 
moft, inftances, overbalanced the plea- 
fures; may not this have arifen from the 
peculiar and difordered ftates of fociety, 
rather than from the natural tendency of 
cultivation and refinement ? A commer- 
cial country, the fole moving {pring of 
which is pecuniary intereft, muft necef- 
farily be unfavourable to thofe who, 
intent on mental improvement, require 
for their purfuit abfraétion and leiiure, 
by involving them in external difficulties. 
Honour, fame, and the pleafure, which 
is found in the purfuit, rather than pecu- 
niary gain, are fuppofed to conftitute the 
‘ecompence of literary eminence... Ari- 
ftocratical and feudul infitutioas, ‘falfo, 
by faétitious privileges and artificial 
diftinétions, deprive merit of its encou- 
ragement, and talents of their juit and 
natural reward. “Talents, therefore, to 
adopt the commercial ftyle, are not free ~ 
to find their level, -Monarchical,anid. 
defpotic governments, by their fplendour, 
their allurements, and their terrors, -have 
a tendency to debauch the tatte, corrupt 
the heart, and fetter the mind, and afford , 
a temptation to the proftitution of talents. 
‘Thefe appear to be among the ditlculties, - 
the nature of which is to fupprefs, per- 
vert, or impede, rather than to awaken 
and ftimulate, the intelleétual powers. 
Whetherrepublics may be lefs inimical to 
the production, the encouragement, and 
the reward of mental exeellence, has not 
BUA yet, 
