not overcome, and
checked in enterprise by diffidence and timidity, the natural offspring
of a refined and delicate structure.

If genius were always associated with physical force and constitutional
vigour, we should have had the dignities of the world more appropriately
filled than they are, and many who lord it would be found with their
necks bent in humiliation.

How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!

Where mental and constitutional force are combined, and extraordinary
talents are sustained by resolution, confidence, vigorous animal
spirits, and the perseverance and indefatigable industry, supplied by
corporal strength, the obstructions must be numerous and great that can
prevent the possessor from rising. In Hodgkinson those requisites were
united in an eminent degree. No adversity could crush his energies, no
prosperity impair his industry. It was but a few months before his
death that old Mr. Whitlock under whose management Hodgkinson had early
in life played in the north of England, said to this writer, "John had
as much work in him as any two players I ever knew--he's the same in
that respect now, and will be the same to the end of the chapter."

Something of this the reader may have already perceived in the specimens
afforded by H's boyish adventures. His forcing his way to the notice of
one of the most respectable managers in England, and obtaining a footing
upon the stage, when not fifteen years of age, would appear incredible
if it were not so much a matter of notoriety as to be subject to
demonstrative proof. Intimately as the writer thought himself acquainted
with the minutest circumstances of H's first adventures at Bristol, he
finds that there was one which either he had forgotten, or H. had
neglected to mention to him. Though it be of no very great moment, yet
as it serves to thicken the circumstances which elucidate the boy's
character, it is introduced in this place. Since the publication of the
last number of The Mirror, the editor received the following letter
directed to "the biographer of Mr. Hodgkinson."

"Sir,

"Considering the circumstantial minuteness with which you
have related the youthful adventures of Mr. H. I am
surprised at your not mentioning one which I know to be a
fact. On the first night's performance of the company after
his arrival at Bristol, his passionate love of the stage
made him im