Whilst this sheet was passing through the press, in treating of the Guild of Literature, the following remarks occur in the “Morning Chronicle” (Sept 3), a journal (having no reference to its politics) which must always be prized for its literary ability and especially on literary subjects:—
“We have read the history of literature in vain, if we have not discovered that men of letters are not as other men. Knowledge and intellectual superiority are their own exceeding great reward; but it may be doubted whether we can make erratic genius prudent, or regulate the inconsistencies and caprices which so often fatally obstruct the success of the artist, by the most elaborate provision against the unavoidable accidents of fortune, or against the natural impulses of disposition or passion. This much, however, is certain—that, despite the melancholy annals of shattered genius, broken hopes, and blasted capabilities, the man of truth, honesty, and principle has very rarely suffered final shipwreck in pursuing or in imparting knowledge. Poverty sorely cripples intellect; but how ennobling and elevating are those records which remind us that intellect, coupled with principle and regulated by conscience, has seldom failed to conquer that ignoble hindrance! Johnson walked the streets of London without knowing where to lay his head; but the lesson of his life would be lost, if we were not to add that he died in competence.”
I dissent very little from this statement; but is it indeed to be
deemed a literary triumph and cause of exultation, that after all
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At the same time Mr. Justice Talfourd has prefixed a biographical sketch of his schoolfellow, Mr. Deacon, to a pleasing posthumous work from his pen. He was no Johnson, but a literary enthusiast, gifted with considerable talents. He, too did not die in distress, thanks to newspaper employment; but how his enthusiasm was quelled, and his talents discouraged, and his life embittered for a long season, I can show from his disconsolate letters seeking work in the “Literary Gazette.”
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