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It may be urged, however, that this is contrary to the principles by which the poetical character is upheld, inasmuch as it is from excessive excitement that all the sublime productions of the poet derive their birth. But, in truth, it is not that exhaustion which follows the labour of composition, that is most to be dreaded. Neither, perhaps, is destruction to be apprehended chiefly from the blows of adversity. In both cases, trite and proverbial expressions are constantly recurring to the memory of the danger of overstretching the faculties in the one, and of yielding to fruitless sorrow in the other.

It is when the artifices of the arch-enemy are covert; when the ready weapon of destruction is concealed from our view; when the brim of the poisonous cup is deceitfully sweetened, that the fatal blow is to be most feared.

I write not of those individuals who are inhabi tants of cities, and engaged in the tumults of a busy life. Such, it appears to me, no caution whatever can possibly save. Healthy organization alone is adapted to such pursuits, and never can they be successfully followed by the morbidly sensitive.

But, even in the loneliest walks of life, without self-control, the highly-gifted among mankind must be inevitably destroyed. To the excessive excitement of the mind acting with violent influence on the bodily frame, seems to have been owing the

decay and the untimely fate of Collins, of Burns, and of Kirke White; to which names might perhaps be added, those of numerous gifted individuals that dropt into the grave unpitied and un

have "6 known."

The grand secret, then, seems to be to avoid sudden and excessive excitement. I have already observed, that this is not to be apprehended so much from the stimulus of poetic impulse as from other causes. For the fact is, that those morbidly sensitive martyrs to whom I have alluded, were just as liable to be affected by every external occurrence of whatever kind, as by the inchantments of Nature and of Poetry.

Dr. Currie, in his most interesting remarks on the maladies of men of genius, has, with the skill and accuracy of a good physician, described particularly those which arise from the use of wine and other stimuli of that class. But, without proper regulation, a poètic temperament is as liable to be too much affected by an infinite and endless variety of exciting causes that are every day occurring, as by this one in particular; a remark which is fully proved by numberless passages in the letters of Burns.

From this tendency to excessive excitement on all occasions, proved not only that nervous debility and relaxation of the whole system, which are the

natural consequence of inebriation; but also those bitter disappointments which follow the false and flattering estimates of human life, which every poet is so apt to form in his hours of exhilaration, and which, in early youth, inevitably arise from that extreme elevation and delicacy of mind which is caused by a constant intercourse with the fields, woods, mountains and rivers.

It is not the mere action of vinous stimuli in the bodily frame alone that proves injurious. Take an ordinary vulgar character, a ploughman for instance, a farmer, a foxhunter, or a boxer, and administer a due quantity of food and wine, and the consequences on his bodily frame would be precisely the same as on the frame of Burns, neither more nor less, were it not that the quickening stimulus of the mind is wanting; there is a total absence of imagination, of quick-springing and contending images, hopes, passions and lofty designs. In like measure, afterwards, there is a proportionate absence of disappointment and of self-condemnation.

It is by the reaction of the mind on a bodily frame too delicate, either by nature or by improper training, that the morbid debility and early decay of men such as Burns, and Collins, and Kirke White, are produced. It is therefore by guarding against every extraordinary and unnecessary excitement, that the existence of the poet can best be prolonged

I am perfectly aware that for these remarks I shall incur the ridicule of those who affirm, that plunging into active life and strenuous exertion at the bar, or in the senate, are the best methods of curing inordinate sensibility; and that literature and active employment in public life, should always go hand in hand. Such persons are not aware of the precise limits of their own argument, which in reality amounts to no more than this, that it is very possible for a man of healthy organization, a man of the world, to succeed also in literature; an assertion of which we daily behold living proofs, and which I have no wish to disprove, even if this were possible. But, place an individual such as Cowper, or even Burns, in a situation that requires such exertion, and what must be the inevitable consequences? Unquestionably the utter overthrow and destruction of powers that, with proper regulation, might have proved the glory of his age and country. He may survive indeed, though this is very improbable, and in the instance of Cowper, impossible; but he will survive no longer to the Muse, to Literature, or to Virtue!

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N° LXXXIX.

On the Passion for Posthumous Fame.

DIVINES and philosophers have indulged themselves frequently in declaiming against the passion for posthumous fame. But surely the wish that after death our spirits may yet live to convey pleasurable ideas, and to ameliorate the heads and hearts of mankind, may justly be affirmed to be one of the noblest and most rational of all principles. It is in a double sense of the words securing the immortality of the soul. If it is blameable to act on such a principle, it follows that man ought no longer to be considered a social animal; that philanthropy is a fantastic term, without rational import. In fact, it amounts to much the same thing as if we should affirm that all virtue is but a phantasm, or that all virtue consists in the mere art of life, or in attending religious meetings, and counting the beads of a

rosary.

It is indeed very true, that the love of literary fame ought not to prevent an adherence to that philosophy which inculcates that the performance of what is right, in every situation, ought to form the

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