fitness for Heaven does not bring the consolation for his untimely
fate which perhaps it ought. It is impossible to refrain from
anticipating what his talents might have produced, had his
existence been extended; and though it is extremely doubtful if he
were capable of worldly happiness, there is a selfishness in our
nature which makes us grieve when those who are likely to increase
our intellectual pleasures are hurried to the grave.

In whatever light the character of this unhappy youth be
contemplated, it is full of instruction. His talents were unusually
precocious, and their variety was as astonishing as their extent.
Besides the Poetical pieces in this volume, and his scholastic
attainments, his ability was manifested in various other ways.
His style was remarkable for its clearness and elegance, and his
correspondence and prose pieces show extensive information. To
great genius and capacity, he united the rarest and more important
gifts of sound judgment and common sense. It is usually the
misfortune of genius to invest ordinary objects with a meretricious
colouring, that perverts their forms and purposes, to make its
possessor imagine that it exempts him from attending to those
strict rules of moral conduct to which others are bound to adhere,
and to render him neglectful of the sacred assurance that "to whom
much is given from him will much be required." Nature, in Kirke
White's case, appears, on the contrary, to have determined that
she would, in one instance at least, prove that high intellectual
attainments are strictly compatible with every social and moral
virtue. At a very early period of his life, religion became the
predominant feeling of his mind, and she imparted her sober and
chastened effects to all his thoughts and actions. The cherished
object of every member of his family, he repaid their affection by