The Hillsborough Recorder

Genius at first is like a spark of fire, that is easily quenched by neglect, or kindled into a vivid flame by care and nourishment. If left to itself it expires or increases as the materials which encompass it are uncongenial or congenial to it. A breath may blow it into brilliancy, and a drop of water quench it for ever. When nurtured and enkindled, it blazes and enlightens and warms all around it--producing health, and joy; but if it overleaps its proper boundary, too often consumes and desolates the fabric in which it had its earliest existence, and expires at last amid the ruins it has made. In the character of Chatterton, we see it quenched as soon as it appeared--in that of Washington, we see it lighting up a realm, and imparting its temperate heat to others, while Alexander stands a conspicuous monument of the danger of genius when it bursts upon the world, unguided by reason or religion.