whose voices have gone forth to the ends of the earth; with
whose minds I have communed even in the solitudes of
America. Accustomed, as we are in our country, to know
European writers only by their works, we cannot conceive
of them, as of other men, engrossed by trial or sordid pur-
suits, and jostling with the crowd of common minds in the
dusty paths of life. They pass before our imaginations like
superior beings, radiant with the emanations of their own
genius, and surrounded by a halo of literary glory.

To find, therefore, the elegant historian of the Medici
mingling among the busy sons of traffic, at first shocked my
poetical ideas; but it is from the very circumstances and
situation in which he has been placed, that Mr. Roscoe de-
rives his highest claims to admiration. It is interesting to
notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves;
springing up under every disadvantage, and working their
solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.
Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of
art, with which it would rear legitimate dulness to maturity;
and to glory in the vigor and luxuriance of her chance pro.
ductions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and
though some may perish among the stony places of the world,
and some be choked by the thorns and brambles of early
adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in
the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and
spread over their sterile birth-place all the beauties of vege-
tation.

Such has been the case with Mr. Roscoe. Born in a
place apparently ungenial to the growth of literary talent;
in the very market-place of trade; without fortune, family
connections, or patronage; self-prompted, self-sustained, and
almost self-taught, he has conquered every obstacle, achieved
his way to eminence, and having become one of the ornaments
of the nation, has turned the whole force of his talents and
influence to advance and embellish his native town.

Indeed, it is this last trait in his character which has

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