The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1842-09-13

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} advance in my narative,l ought to premise
that although my father resides fifty mile.
; from this place, he had become acquainted
+ with Mr.. Hervey in New York. and hac
conceived an opinion so exalted of his capa
bllities as an instructor, that being an ear
nest partisan Of a private education in pref
erence to public one, he applied to thai
gentleman. to receive me in his family, rs
his pupil. As my father was rich and he
poor, and as l was the only. and perhaps |
ought to add, spoiled son, there was no diff.
ficul'y in settling the arrangement.
Behold me, then, an indolent, INDUCED
and untaught subject, removed fifty miles
from home, and placed in a position as un.
like that in which had hitherto moved, as
can well be imagined. But pass wholly
oy every thing that occurred here to myself,
in order TO give you as promised, the sto-
~ of the family /; and all that part Of this,
which has its scene laid in England, shall
despatch in a word. Mr.. Hervey was an
Oxford graduate, genius, truly and en-
phaiically such-a poet, and as sensi tive,
shy, and proud, as such persons generally
are. He tried the church awhile, and aban-
doned it. He tried the law, and became
disguised with it. He tried verse making,
and Us he was nameless, unpatronized I'M
known, and wrote from the enthusiasm of
a rich and elevated mind, and Of course
overshot the taste and comprehension of the
circle in which he moved, the little poetas-
tiers and tte-paragraphists barked his
verses into nonentity in their clique. He
was more successful in making love to the
beautiful seventh daughter of country
curate, with living of sixty pounds. She
was only inferior TO him in talents; being
in aimless incapubility,in simplicity Of char.
acter, and excellence of heart, his perfect
peer and yoke-mate. Though it be math-
ematically true, that minus makes plus, it
is not practical fact, that poverty added
TO poverty becomes wealth. After reducing
love and cottage TO their very lowest en-.
durable experiment, in various efforts for 4
subsistence, and when their family already
amounted 10 five children. a small success
sion from a remote relative Of Mrs. Hcrvey's
fell TO them in New York /; and in the hope,
that chance might prove more favorable in
opening some avenue to subsistence in the
new world, than it had in England. they
sailed for America. Their bequest was
rapidly exhausting in New York, in differ
ent trials of pursuit, as little persevered in,
and as little successful, as those in England.
Mr.. Hervey's health and spirits were decli-
ming, and as usually happens to minds of
his temperament, the final experiment, that
suggested itself to his thoughts, invested
with a thousand soothing associations, was
10 turn farmer, and die in his own fields.
and be buried under his own trees. Between
two and three thousand dollars remained to
him, with which. on the recommendation
of friend, he purchased FOUNDER tract Of
land, furnished that cottage, and became IFS
occupant.
Such was the family in which became
an inmate. 1t presented the most str
king contrasts, and compounds, of gentle
and affectionate intercourse, kept up almost
in a state of want of refinement and ele-
gance of manners, in disorganized and
sIatternly family establishment of high
minded pride of feeling and department,
sustained in the necessary discharge of Of
fees and labors alike servile and profitless.
Every thing in this new world was study
to me. Uninstructed as was, was soon
made to feel the native resources and the
vast requirements of the mind that was to
form mine. This, united TO a quick per-
ception the admirable character which
awayed that mind, awed me into
steadfast and unconscious respect for
him and his household. The laughable
shifts to which this family were often obi
ced to resort for subsistence from day to
dav. and the reckless Encouragement Of
every thing, within and without,w calcu-
lated to produce, and under any other cir
cumstances would have produced,any other
feeling than that of respect.
-Four of the FIVE children, George and
Ruth. Sarah and Thomas, were fair and
balanced compounds Of the character Of the
father and mother. Like them, they were
each remarkable for personal beauty, and
were gifted with the genius and poetic tenn
permanent, the shyness, pride, and inefficien
CIV of the father. and the gentle. quiet, IN
complaining mildness of their mother. At
first view, their characters seemed as uni
form as was the unhappy result, there was
the same want of energy and frmness of
purpose that marked their father. When
studied more intimately, and analyZed with
a more ample experience, each showed a
modification Of this singular endowment of
the father, that rendered the study of these
most amiable and most useless of human
beings a source of perpetual and high ex-
citement to my curiosity. 1t seemed i'm
possible, that under an exterior so MONO 4,
tonous, and result so exactly the same,
there should be couched such a strange
diversity of character. alike feeble, interes-
ting, and amiable.
Hannah, the third in point of years, and
when l entered the family, fifteen. that is to
say five years younger than myself, was
strange exception. She was only what
would have been called pretty, or perhaps
good-lookihg. though the least beautiful of
the family, if You laid out of the view eyes
of melting, black lustrous brilliancy, which
shone with the intense expression of sense,
amiability, and 6rmness. Her eyes were