moral principle be enlarged and liberal, without an
extensive acquaintance with books. To me they stood in the place of an
active career, of ambition, and those palpable excitements necessary to the
multitude. The collation of philosophical opinions, the study of historical
facts, the acquirement of languages, were at once my recreation, and the
serious aim of my life. I turned author myself. My productions however were
sufficiently unpretending; they were confined to the biography of favourite
historical characters, especially those whom I believed to have been
traduced, or about whom clung obscurity and doubt.

As my authorship increased, I acquired new sympathies and pleasures. I
found another and a valuable link to enchain me to my fellow-creatures; my
point of sight was extended, and the inclinations and capacities of all
human beings became deeply interesting to me. Kings have been called the
fathers of their people. Suddenly I became as it were the father of all
mankind. Posterity became my heirs. My thoughts were gems to enrich the
treasure house of man's intellectual possessions; each sentiment was a
precious gift I bestowed on them. Let not these aspirations be attributed
to vanity. They were not expressed in words, nor even reduced to form in my
own mind; but they filled my soul, exalting my thoughts, raising a glow of
enthusiasm, and led me out of the obscure path in which I before walked,
into the bright noon-enlightened highway of mankind, making me, citizen of
the world, a candidate for immortal honors, an eager aspirant to the praise
and sympathy of my fellow men.

No one certainly ever enjoyed the pleasures of composition more intensely
than I. If I left the woods, the solemn music of the waving branches, and
the majestic temple of nature, I sought the vast halls of the Castle, and
looked over wide, fertile England, spread beneath our regal mount, and
listened the while to inspiring strains of music. At such times solemn
harmonies or spirit-stirring airs gave wings to my lagging thoughts,
permitting them, methought, to penetrate the last veil of nature and her
God, and to display the highest beauty in visible expression to the
understandings of men. As the music went on, my ideas seemed to quit their
mortal dwelling house; they shook their pinions and began a flight, sailing
on the placid current of thought, filling the creation with new glory, and
rousing sublime imagery that else had slept voiceless.