by none committed, console ourselves with
the thought, in noways unkind to his merits, that he died in a mild
bright spring that might have been succeeded by no very glorious summer;
and that, fading away as he did among the tears of the good and great,
his memory has been embalmed, not only in his own gentle inspirations,
but in the immortal eulogy of Southey. But, alas! many thus endowed by
nature "have waged with fortune an unequal war;" and pining away in
poverty and disappointment, have died broken-hearted--and been
buried--some in unhonoured, some even in unwept graves! And how many
have had a far more dismal lot, because their life was not so innocent!
The children of misfortune, but of error too--of frailty, vice, and sin.
Once gone astray, with much to tempt them on, and no voice, no hand, to
draw them back, theirs has been at first a flowery descent to death, but
soon sorely beset with thorns, lacerating the friendless wretches, till,
with shame and remorse their sole attendants, they have tottered into
uncoffined holes and found peace.

With sorrows and sufferings like these, it would be hardly fair to blame
society at large for having little or no sympathy; for they are, in the
most affecting cases, borne in silence, and are unknown even to the
generous and humane in their own neighbourhood, who might have done
something or much to afford encouragement or relief. Nor has Charity
always neglected those who so well deserved her open hand, and in their
virtuous poverty might, without abatement of honourable pride in
themselves, have accepted silent succour to silent distress. Pity that
her blessings should be so often intercepted by worthless applicants, on
their way, it may be said, to the magnanimous who have not applied at
all, but spoken to her heart in a silent language, which was not meant
even to express the penury it betrayed. But we shall never believe that
dew twice blessed seldom descends, in such a land as ours, on the noble
young head that else had sunk like a chance flower in some dank shade,
left to wither among weeds. We almost venture to say, that much of such
unpitied, because often unsuspected suffering, cannot cease to be
without a change in the moral government of the world.

Nor has Genius a right to claim from Conscience what is due but to
Virtue. None who love humanity can wish to speak harshly of its mere
frailties or errors--but none who revere morality can allow privilege to
its sin