Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1855-03-15
From the Louisville Journal
JAMES G. PERCIVAL.

This brilliant but erratic child OF song
has thrown by his harp and gloomily
retired forever from the gay haunts o
the MUSES.. 1t may be that his voice i
not missed by the busy world, nor hi'
absence felt by many of the passionate
throng that still wander through the
groves and drink of the crystal water:
of Helicon-but there ARE those, EFF
audience, though few" whose heart:
have been shadowed by silence, and in
whose innermost spirits his peerless ut
terances are treasured and eDshrined
like things of beauty. Alas! that OBJ
livion and fame, that cold indifference
and admiring love should have equal
charms for him. Coleridge, in his own
beautiful epiLaph, speaks touchingly Of
himself as having ''found death in life, %
and such has almost been the dark fate
of Perciyal. The voice of praise, OF
blame now falls, and has long fallen, as
unavailingly as upon the "dull ear oi
DEATH"
Self-immured in room of the hos
pital in the extreme suburbs of New
Haven-a city of which poet should
be proud-this gifted and eccentric be-
ing lives, as he lived for the last quarter
of a century, purely, solitary and as
cetic life. He is wholly absorbed in in
tellectual pursuits, and shrinks with a
painful sensitiveness from all the luxuries
and amenities of life. No Eastern
anchorite ever abiured more completely
the comforts and refnements of elegant
rank for the blank privations of their
cell-no storied recluse ever more vol
unfairly renounced brilliant career of
usefulness and fame for the lonely vigils
of hermitage. In this desolate hab-
itation, rejoicing, it is said, in but a sin
gle chair, he has surrounded himself
with magnificent library and philoso-
phical apparatus, from which friend or
foe are alike excluded, and in which,
though dead to all besides, he seeks and
finds the solace and the charms of in
tellect.
A confirmed misantrephe and mysog-
ohist, he is almost as great a stranger
and a riddle to his fellow townsmen as
to the world at large. Indeed they
never think of him, save when some
distant pilgrim, captivated by the far
reaching splendor of his genius, in
quires with enthusiasm for the home of
Percival! So trueis it that ga prophet
is not without fame except in. his own
country" The habits of Percival are,
of course, peculiar. He is very rarely
seen in the streets-is occasionally
caught fitting from alcove to alcove in
the dim light of the stately libraries of
Yale-and not unfrequently may be
seen lowering near the dusky manufac-
tories and machine shops of the city,
like some yoracious ghoul preying upon
the souls of steam-engines and gloating
over the tit-bits of intellect clinging to
mill-shafts and spinning-jennies. When
In the mood he gracefully descends
from mis- "horse of the night" and un-
folds to the. artisan and humble work.
men the secret principles of the gigantic
instruments they practically direct,
INFINITELY describes their origin and
progressive improvements, explains
their intimate connection with human
welfare and development, and lifts up
the curtain generally from the great
mystery of modern industry, with a
carelessness and force of thought fam
;I;ar;tv and auuositeness of illustration,
and a simplicity and beauty Of language,
altogether enchanting. All! there
are hundreds IN the clustered studies
and palatiai drawingrooms within the
roar of this machinery, who would
gladly touch the hidden spring Of this
4 6matchiess intellect, and revel in Its ght-
ter;ng riches as do these humble crafts
meu--but Percivsl, II the expression
be not irreverent, has q adecided Penchant
for the lowly, and requires men to be-