Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/94

 , or blushes without cause for what he has uttered. To such a mind the harsh and censorious tempers which are found in society are a terror, and it is in solitude alone that the ideas are freed from their bondage, and the expressions from their constraint, and the pen which aids the progress of this secluded delight is resigned reluctantly, as a friend, that has imparted the highest degree of intellectual enjoyment.

Among those who have preferred writing, to uttering their thoughts, we find the example of Virgil, who spoke seldom, and with hesitation, and was so unassuming in his manners that when the people thronged to see him as he passed, he would escape into obscure streets to avoid their gaze. Cowper, except before intimate friends, was almost uniformly silent, and Goldsmith, whose writings display beauty of sentiment and elevation of language, was in discourse trifling and frivolous. That accute and penetrating meta-physician, the elder President Edwards, never strove to display his talents in conversation, but says "as far as I can judge of my own abilities, I think I can write better than I can speak." The accomplished Elizabeth Smith, who in the compass of a short life acquired the knowledge of ten different languages, was so far from that loquacity which often marks superficial attainments, that it was difficult to draw her into conversation.