As to the faults of those to whom the world allows the possession of
genius, there are, perhaps, good grounds for the belief that they
have actually fewer than those employed about ordinary affairs; but
the last are easily concealed and the first carefully dragged to
light.

The miseries too, sometimes attendant to persons of distinguished
literary attainments, are often held forth as a subject of "warn and
scare" but Cervantes and Camoens would both have been cast into
prison even though unable to read or write, and Savage, though a
mechanic or scrivener, would probably have possessed the same
failings and consequently have fallen into the same, or a greater
degree of poverty and suffering. Alas! how many, in the flower of
youth and strength, perish in the loathsome dungeons of this island,
and, when dead, are refused a decent grave; who, in many instances,
were their histories traced by an able pen would be wept by half the
civilized world.

Although I can boast nothing but an extreme and unquenchable love
for the art to which my humble aspirations are confined, my lyre has
been a solace when every thing else has failed; soothing when
agitated, and when at peace furnishing that exercise and excitement
without which the mind becomes sick, and all her faculties retrograde
when they ought to be advancing. Men, when they feel that nature has
kindled in their bosoms a flame which must incessantly be fed, can
cultivate eloquence and exert it, in aid of the unfortunate before
the judgment seats of their country; or endeavour to "lure to the
skies" such as enter the temples of their god; but woman, alike
subject to trials and vicissitudes and endowed with the same wishes,
(for the observation, "there is no sex to soul," is certainly not