Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/38

 14 SKETCHES OF THE

to assist him any further; he had tried eveiy means of support, of which he could suppose himself capable, and every one had failed; ruin was behind him; poverty, debt, want, and famine before; and, as if his cup of miseiy were not ah'eady full enough, here were a suffering wife and children to make it overflow.

But with all his acuteness of feeling, Mr. Henry pos- sessed great native firmness of character; and, let me add, great reliance, too, on that unseen arm which never long deserts the faithful. Thus supported, he was able to bear up under the heaviest pressure of mis- fortune, and even to be cheerful, under circumstances which would sink most other men into despair.

It was at this period of his fortunes, that Mr. Jefferson became acquainted with him; and the reader, I am persuaded, will be gratified with that gentleman's own account of it. These are his words. " My acquaint- ance with Mr. Henry commenced in the winter of 1759-60. On my way to the college, I passed the Christmas holidays, at col. Dandridge's, in Hanover, to whom Mr. Henry was a near neighbour. During the festivity of the season, I met him in society every day, and we became well acquainted, although I was much his junior, being then in my seventeentli year, and he a maiTied man. His manners had something of coarseness in them; his passion was music, dancing and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and it attach- ed every one to him. You ask some account of his mind and information at this period; but you will re- collect that we were almost continually engaged in the usual revelries of the season. The occasion perhaps, as much as his idle disposition, prevented his engaging in any conversation which might give the measure either of his mind or information. Opportunity was

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