316 
their unnatural protectors, to the furgeons 
to fee if they were ftill-born, or if they 
~ ever lived? 
Sir, the difcoveries I have made in my 
purluits of genius have been fo many and 
important, that if I-had been properly en- 
couraged, I fhould, in the {pace of a few 
years, have made Great Britain the envy 
of the world. 1 fhould have fhewn a race 
of Homers and Virgils that would have 
eclipfed the brilliancy of Greece and 
Rome: I fhould more than once have 
placed Shakefpeare a little on the back 
ground in fpite of all the trunks that Nor- 
tolk-freet can contain; and have given 
Milton a place more becoming his zuferier 
talents than that which has been affigned, 
merely from the fuppofed want of a fuc- 
ceflor. I knew, better even than the 
fheriff’s-officers, where to find a Bacon, 
a Boyle, or 2 Locke; and my Newtons, 
neither few nor {carce, fhould have proved 
2. vacuum from other documents than 
their pockets. A fecond Auguftan age 
fiewuld have made the clofe of theeighteenth 
century more celebrated than its com- 
mencement: the German aurhors fhould 
have been out-numbered ; and Paternofter- 
row have become the Leipfic-fair of the 
whole univerfe. 
This much, however, I cando; I can 
prove that the complaint of want of ge- 
- nius and talent is the complaint of igno- 
rance and indolence. Men who will not 
take the trouble to inquire, take for 
granted that inquiry is ulelefs ; and thofe 
who are too indolent to afk a guefiion 
think it is impoffible to give an anfwer. 
Thus it is, as in many other cafes, that 
errors are propagated, becaufe it is lefs 
troublefome to remain in the wrong than 
to be fet right. And thus it is that we 
fuppofe there is a fcarcity of genius be- 
caule we content ourfelves with exaniining 
the furface only, and never think of look- 
ing to “the dark unfathom’d cave” for 
_the “ gem of pureft ray ferene,’’? which, I 
will venture to fay, he that feeks fhall 
find. 
Yes, Mr. Editor, unfupported and un- 
protected, my refearches have been oftea 
crowned with fuccefs. In the article of 
fratefinex only, which many perfons fup- 
pole to be extremely fcarce, and appareuies 
rari nantes iz gurgite vafto, it is incredi- 
‘ ble how many Harleys,’ Bolingbrokes, 
Pelhams, Pulteneys, Walpoles, and Chat- 
hams, I have found, where ordinary in- 
quiries and unphyfiognomica! eyes would 
have difcovered only taylors, barbers, 
grocers, and tobacconifts, plain tradef- 
nen, or honeft artizans—e‘¢ hands, that the 
ree 
Genius ia Obfcurity detected. 
{ May I x, 
rod of empires might have fway’d,” mea- 
furing tape, or weighing the coarfek of 
fugars. Among fuch I have feldum failed 
to meet with a premier fully accomplifhed 
in the arcaza of ways and means, the 
myfteries of aggreffion in war, the varieties 
of exifting circumftances, and all the dig- 
nified tortucfities and decorous ambiguities. 
of diplomatic confideration: bue ‘chill 
penury”’ made one work at the loom, and 
contined the ambition of another to a fhop- 
board. I know an acute and penetrating 
letter-carrier who would have made an ex- 
cellent plenipotentiary ; and when I lately 
heard of a change of adminiftration, I 
muft confefs I fixed on one of my own 
fervants as a fit and proper perfon for fe- 
cretary of ftate. A man more ready at an 
excufe, when any mifconduct occarred ; . 
more indiftinét in an anfwer, when 
the queftion was the plaineft; more 
reluétant to an inquiry, and more ready 
to fnift a fault from his own fhoul- 
ders to that of his fellow-fervants, I never 
met with. 
Oratory and political ability are now fo 
clofely conjoined, that it were in vain to 
attempt to put them afunder.. A long 
fpeech and a good fpeech are become fy= 
nonymous terms ; and a ftatefman has the 
fecurity of a boxer, that of being invin- 
cible while he can keep his vind. If 
oratory then be the requilite for an official 
fituation, it is impoffible. to defpair of a 
race of politicians in the very loweft ranks 
of life. The lower claffes of people in 
the metropoils are indeed particularly 
qualified for public. fpeaking. If you. 
liften only, as in ny refearches after genius 
I have ofien done, to the debates of-a 
public-houwle-club, or the difcuffions of a 
coffee-room, you will perceives as I have 
forrowfully perceived, many an embryo 
Demefthenes, and half-fmothered Cicero, 
veiled trom the common eye by that “ chill 
penury’’ which confines them to the ¢* un- 
fathom’d caves” of chandlers’-fhops and. 
grocers’-counters, and refoives all .the 
powers of mind into the vulgar knack of 
buying and felling, Their facility of. 
faying much and hitle to the /purpofe is 
truly admiravle, and their amendments 
and explanations are fo much more unintel- 
Iigible than the original propofition, that 
chance only, or evil fortune, could have ex- 
cluded them from the high ftations they 
were fo eminently calculated to fill with ade 
vantage ‘to themfelves and their families. 
But enough on this fabjeét. It is time 
we fhould pats on to the learned profet- 
fons. Here I am truly forry that as, out 
of all due retpect, I muit begin with the 
church, 
