The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1804-09-05
MISCELLANEOUS.


Wilmot was man of genius, of indepen-
dence, and exquiite fenfbility. Though bred
in the fororn lhade of retirement, with none of
the advantages which wealth, or titled birth, or
collegiate education could confer, his mind
had become ftrongly tinctured with literary
character; and he had early learned to drink
freely of the fweet and grateful waters of the
Perian fpring. PofiefIed of that, to which we
owe 70 much ofthe pleafures, the improvements
andthe elegant arts of focal life, he had begun
to conceive hirnfelf at leaf equal to the men
whom accident, or birth, or Il mechanical induf.
try, had RATED to power, however commanding.
or wealth, however abundant. He had no
rent-roll TO exhibit mo farms extending beneath
the eye ofthe oblerver; no richly freghted vef
fels; no pompous equipage to draw out for the
admiration of the world, and on which he NIGH
found his own claims to excellence and refpect :;
but he had that which feemed to him hyperion
in value....an enriched and ever active mind
with foul too independent to brook the indig-
mites and contempt Of the world yet eagerly
painting after the means to render it the mott
fubfantial fervices.
That world, however, was in part ignorant of
his merits, and partly Regardless of his value
lnftead of the honour and the fympathies ofthe
heart to which he had jultly afpired, he received
from it nothing but the filence or the taunts of
contempt ; inffead of the penteous accommo.
dations and the Hateful elegancies of the rich,
he found himfelf covered with rags, ftinted in
his fubliftence, thruh into prifon, or inhabit-
ing the meanen receptacle of the poor. Goad-
ed by the pains of deftitution, to which the very
fenGbilites of his foul, and the ardent longings
of his genius, had impaired new and infufera-
bic agony; diveaed even ofthe lafl enchant-
mentS of hope; he refolved "to end at once
fuch complication of evils" Yet unwilling
that the memory of his fuferings fliould be
Doomed it, the fame abrupt ciofe which he was
about to communicate to the faculties of his
frame, Wilmot determined to leave behind him
the following ftriking momento of his hopes, his
agoniing dilappointments, and his unmerited
wrongs.
Snch lis a part Of the very affecting tale which
the eyer-fiowing pen and the nervous genius of
Thomas Holcrof. has called into cxiGence. Such
is part of one of the epifodes in his celebrated
Novel of Hugh Trevor, in which he has both at
tempted oPourtray fome of the Englifhmen as
they actually are, and man as he is capable of be-
coming.
For the publication of Tie following extraa,
a very flight apology fecms to be required. We
gi,e it not becaule it contains vindication of
flticide, for to the right Of felf-denrudon Mr.
Holcroft is ftrenuouny oppofed; not becaufe it
is faithful representation of the wrongs and
dilappointments which a man Of literary genius
is liable to experience in our own country, for
to ts kind of genius we have feldom afpred I;
but beCaufe it prefents us with vivid and af-
fecting picture of fome of the misfortunes which
fometimes await them in Europe, and of the
arong and independent feelings which a man of
fenfbility laboariDg under she prenure of tbefe