that truth and experience come in upon them and rack them with the
most painful feelings.

Stockdale once wrote a declamatory life of Waller. When Johnson's
appeared, though in his biography, says Stockdale, "he paid a large
tribute to the abilities of Goldsmith and Hawkesworth, yet _he made no
mention of my name_." It is evident that Johnson, who knew him well,
did not care to remember it. When Johnson was busied on the Life of
Pope, Stockdale wrote a pathetic letter to him _earnestly imploring_
"a generous tribute from his authority." Johnson was still obdurately
silent; and Stockdale, who had received many acts of humane kindness
from him, adds with fretful _naivete_,

"In his sentiments towards me he was divided between a benevolence to
my interests, and a _coldness to my fame_."

Thus, in a moment, in the perverted heart of the scribbler, will ever
be cancelled all human obligation for acts of benevolence, if we are
_cold to his fame_!

And yet let us not too hastily condemn these unhappy men, even for the
violation of the lesser moral feelings--it is often but a fatal effect
from a melancholy cause; that hallucination of the intellect, in
which, if their genius, as they call it, sometimes appears to sparkle
like a painted bubble in the buoyancy of their vanity, they are also
condemned to see it sinking in the dark horrors of a disappointed
author, who has risked his life and his happiness on the miserable
productions of his pen. The agonies of a disappointed author cannot,
indeed, be contemplated without pain. If they can instruct, the
following quotation will have its use.

Among the innumerable productions of Stockdale, was a "History of
Gibraltar," which might have been interesting, from his having resided
there: in a moment of despair, like Medea, he immolated his
unfortunate offspring.

"When I had arrived at within a day's work of its conclusion, in
consequence of some immediate and mortifying accidents, _my literary
adversity_, and all my other misfortunes, took _fast hold of my mind;
oppressed it extremely; and reduced it to a stage of the deepest
dejection and despondency_. In this unhappy view of life, I made a
sudden resolution--_never more to prosecute the profession of an
author_; to retire altogether from the world, and read only for
consolation and amusement. _I committed to the flames my History of
Gibraltar and my translation of Marsollier's Life of Cardinal
Ximenes_; for which the bookse