Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-05-06

SmOlet was popular writer ropes solemn
declaration, in the preface to his collected works,
comes by no means short of Smoliet's avOwal.-
When employed on the Had, he found it not on
ly occupy his thoughts by day, but haunting his
dreams by night, and once wished himself hanged
to get rid of Homer: and that he experienced Of
ten such literary agonies, witness his description
of the depressions and elevations OF genius:
"Who pants for glory. finds bat short repose.
A breath reuipes him, or abreath o'erfiro,0s."
Thus must the days of great author be pass
ed in labors as unremitting and exhausting as
those of the artizan. The world are not always
aware, that to some, meditation, composition, and
even conversation. NAV inhict pain when detect
ed by the eve and the tenderness of friendship.
When even Rosseau passed morning in compa-
ny he tells us it was observed that in the evening
he was dissatisfied and distressed; and John
Hunter, in mixed company, found that CONVEX
sation fatigued instead of amusing him. Hawkes.
worth, in the second paper OF the AdYenturer,
has composed. from his own feelings, an eloquent
comparative estimate of intellectuala and coporeal
labor. 1t may console the humble mechanic.
The anxious uncertainty of an author for his
compositions, resembles that OF lover when he
has written to mistress not yet decided on his
claims: he repents his labor, for ne thinks he has
written too much. while he is mortified at recO-
lecting that hehad omitted some things, which he
imagines would have secured the object of his
wishes. Madame de Stael, who has often enter
ed into feelings familiar to literary and po-
litcaI family, in parallel between ambition with
genius. has distinguished them in this; that While
ambition perseUeres in the desire OF acquiring pow
er genius .fags of itself. Genius, in the midst of
society, is pain, an internal fever which would
n N
cords of glory did not soften the suifernss 1t pro-
duces."
The acquaintance of the poet Collins proba-
bly complained of his wayward manners and IT.
ritabilitv: but how could they sympathise with
the secret modification of the poet for having
failed in his pastorals, imagining that they were
compose, on wrong principles; or with secret
agony of soul. burning with his own hands, his
uhsold but immortal odes? nor must we forget
here the digni6ed complaint of the Rambler, with
which he artfully closes his work, appealing to
posterity.
In its solitary occupations, genius contracts its
peculiarities, and in that sensiblty which accom-
panies it. that holiness of spirit those quick lea-
ousies, those excessive affections and averslons,
which view every thing as passes in its own ideal
world, and rarely as it exists In the mediocrlty
of reality. They have abandoned their country.
they have changed their name, they have punish
ed themselves with exile in the rage ct their dis.
order Descartes sought i'll vain. even IN his Sc
GREETED life, refuge for his genius; he thought
himself illuminated among strangers, and he
went and died in Sweden; and little did that
man of genius think that his own countrymen
would bee leave to have his ashes restored to
them. The great poetical genius of our times,
has openly alienated himself from the land OF ms
brothers; he becomes immortal in the language
of a people whom he could contemn; he accepts
with ingratitude the fame he loves more than life,
and he is only truly great ca that spot ct earth,
whose genius, when he IS no more, VIII con-
template on his shade in anger and IN sorrow.
Thus the state of authorship is not friendly to
equality of temper: and in those various humors
incidental to it. when authors are often affected
deeply, while the cause escapes all perception OF
SYMPATHY. at those moments the lightest injury
to the feelings. which, at another time. would
make no impression, may produce even fury IN
the warm temper, or the corroding chagrin OF
se.f-wounded spirit. These are moments which
claim the tenderness of friendship. animated by
high esteem for the intellectual excellence OF the
man of genius-not the general intercourse OF
society. not the insensibiliy of the dull nor the
levity of the volatile.
| lIrnoN.-These remarks were, OF course, written
during the time and voluntary exile OF the noble
poet.
-se5e9oasp-
.4prarinn Sustem-A new paper is about to
be established in New York, entitled the Friend
of Equal Rights. 1t takes for its motto the fol-
loving significant sentence:-"All children
have equal rights to maintenance and education
all mankind. at the age Of maturity, to equal
propcrtv." The advertisement is signed by A
Iiexander Ming and Thomas Skidmore, editors
and proprietors, who have undertaken the lauda-
BILE task of persuading society to divide the earn
inqs of the sober and industrious among the profi-
gate and lazy. oole,n eIoS.
IN COUNCIL-MAY 4, 1880.