competence, and the indulgence, but the moderate indulgence, of our
passions. What have these to do with science?"

"I might tell you," replied Vincent, "that I myself have been no idle nor
inactive seeker after the hidden treasures of mind; and that, from my own
experience, I could speak of pleasure, pride, complacency, in the
pursuit, that were no inconsiderable augmenters of my stock of enjoyment:
but I have the candour to confess, also, that I have known
disappointment, mortification, despondency of mind, and infirmity of
body, that did more than balance the account. The fact is, in my opinion,
that the individual is a sufferer for his toils, but then the mass is
benefited by his success. It is we who reap, in idle gratification, what
the husbandman has sown in the bitterness of labour. Genius did not save
Milton from poverty and blindness--nor Tasso from the madhouse--nor
Galileo from the inquisition; they were the sufferers, but posterity the
gainers. The literary empire reverses the political; it is not the many
made for one--it is the one made for many; wisdom and genius must have
their martyrs as well as religion, and with the same results, viz: semen
ecclesioeest sanguis martyrorum. And this reflection must console us for
their misfortunes, for, perhaps, it was sufficient to console them. In
the midst of the most affecting passage in the most wonderful work,
perhaps, ever produced, for the mixture of universal thought with
individual interest--I mean the two last cantos of Childe Harold--the
poet warms from himself at his hopes of being remembered

"'In his line
With his land's language.'

"And who can read the noble and heart-speaking apology of Algernon Sidney,
without entering into his consolation no less than his misfortunes?