Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/35

 vous style of argument, the command of the most beau- tiful and striking imagery, or that language of passion which burns from soul to soul.

In the mean time, the business of the store was rush- ing headlong, to its catastrophe. One year put an end to it. William was then thrown loose upon society, to which he was never, afterwards, usefully attached;* and Patrick was engaged, for the two or three following years, in winding up this disastrous experiment as well as he could.

His misfortunes, however, seem not to have had the effect either of teaching him prudence or of chilling his affections. For, at the early age of eighteen, we find him married to a miss Shelton, the daughter of an honest farmer in the neighbourhood, but in circumstances too poor to contribute effectually to her support. By the joint assistance of their parents, however, the young cou- ple were settled on a small farm, and, here, with the as- sistance of one or two slaves, Mr. Hemy had to delve the earth, with his own hands, for subsistence. Such are the vicissitudes of human life! It is curious to con- template this giant genius, destined in a few years to guide the councils of a mighty nation, but unconscious of the intellectual treasures which he possessed, encum- bered, at the early age of eighteen, with the cares of a family; obscure, unknown and almost unpitied; digging, with wearied hmbs and with an aching heart, a small

which he remonstrates with him on his wild and dissipated course of life. There is reason to believe, however, that at a later period, he may have re- formed, since a gentleman, to whom the manuscript of this work was submit- ted, notes on this passage, that when he was at college at Williamsburg, he recollects to have seen William Henry a member of the assembly, from the county of Fluvanna; that he was called colonel, and was, he afterwards under- stood, pretty well provided as to fortune.
 * I have seen an original letter from col. John Henry to his son William, in

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