Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/30

 SKETCHES OF THE

��I cannot learn that he gave, in his youtli, any evi- dence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. His companions recollect no in- stance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, no flash of fancy, no remarkable beauty or strength of ex- pression; and no indication, however slight, either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that adventurous daring and intrepidity, which marked, so strongly, his future character. So far was he, indeed, from exhi- biting any one prognostic of this greatness, that every omen foretold a life, at best of mediocrity, if not of in- significance. His person is represented as having been coarse, his manners uncommonly awkward, his dress slovenly, his conversation very plain, his aversion to study invincible, and his faculties almost entirely benumbed by indolence. No persuasion could bring him either to read or to vfork. On the contrary, he ran wild in the forest, like one of the abongines of the country, and divided his life between the dissipation and uproar of the chase, and the languor of inaction.

His propensity to observe and comment upon the hu- man character, was, so far as I can learn, the only cir- cumstance, which distinguished him, advantageously, from his youthful companions. This propensity seems to have been born with him, and to have exerted itself, instinctively, the moment that a new subject was pre- sented to his vievv^ Its action was incessant, and it be- came, at length, almost the only intellectual exercise in which he seemed to take delight. To this cause may be traced that consummate knowledge of the human heart which he finally attained, and which enabled him, when he came upon the pubHc stage, to touch the springs of passion with a master-hand, and to controul the reso- lutions and decisions of his hearers, with a power, al- most more than mortal.

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