human nature, nothing
of the practical business of life. With considerable literary
acquirements, and much pretensions to science, he gave himself up to
all the reveries and schemes of modern philosophy; with Southey,
Godwin, and the whole class, he was continually dreaming about the
perfectibility of human nature, and believed that innocence was alone
to be found in that portion of humanity, which approached the nearest
to the state of nature. With these notions, which he succeeded, in
some measure, in imparting to his young and interesting partner, he
declined establishing himself in any of our Atlantic cities, then the
only places in the Union offering attractions to a foreigner of taste
and fortune, and turned his attention, to the magnificent solitudes of
the West. He purchased a portion of the Island in Virginia, near the
mouth of the Little Kenhawa, which has been consecrated by his
misfortunes, and executed those embellishments which have since become
the theme of many a fanciful speech and tale.

Considering himself a second Capac, he set about acquiring an
influence over the rude inhabitants of the Virginia shores, which
might enable him to test the efficiency of his favorite system. But
his exertions were abortive, and he became convinced of the folly of
his early speculations on human nature; his unsophisticated scholars,
affecting to admire him, overreached him on all occasions, and then
laughed at him. He embarked in commercial speculations; this proved a
failure, and he stopped in time to save a portion of the large fortune
which, a few years before, he brought from Europe. He recanted, in
bitterness of feeling, his early political principles, and began to
sigh for the charms of refined society. Discontent stole into his
domestic circle, and the idea of educating his two interesting boys in
the desert became insupportable.

_Oh! quantum est in rebus in ave!_

During this state of feeling, Colonel Burr presented himself, armed
with all the fascinations of manners and address, which so eminently
distinguished him. He soon became the ruler of the destiny of the
Island pair, and unfolded to them, with resistless eloquence, his
magnificent project of the conquest of Mexico, gilding his own
ambition under the plausible motive of relieving enslaved millions
from the thraldom of Spanish tyranny. The idea of becoming prominent
members of a court that would rival the ancient splendor of Montezuma,
and the mo