540 SHERIDAN. that could secure him from future calamity. In such a bewildered state he increased his difficulties by the efforts which he made to elude them, and accelerated his disso lution in endeavouring to drown the sense of his misery. Such is the heavy impost which men of eccentric genius have to pay for sacrificing their time and talents in un certain pursuits, and to obtain a little ephemeral popularity. Mr. Sheridan always lived and acted without any regular system for the government of his domestic conduct; the consequence of which was, as might have been expected, that he became the sport of capricious friendship; and when the winter of his days approached, and he had sepa rated from his political connexions, he experienced the folly of neglecting those resources which can alone support the mind in every exigency, and minister to i t s comfort i n the dreariness o f solitude. Home, though the abode o f domestic virtue and affection, was n o longer safe t o a person s o well known and s o much sought after b y nume rous applicants; t o avoid whose troublesome inquiries, and t o gain a respite from anxiety, h e passed much o f his time i n coffee-houses and taverns. Continual ebriety was the result o f such a course of life; and the effects o f i t upon his constitution, which had been naturally a very robust one, soon appeared i n his countenance and his mannerS, Some idea o f his extraordinary stamina may b e formed from the following incident. A person going t o hear the debates i n the House o f Commons, called a t the Exche quer coffee-house, where his attention was fixed b y a gentleman taking tea, with a parcel o f papers before him. Afterwards h e called for a decanter o f brandy, which h e poured into a large glass, and drank off without diluting i t i n the least, and then walked away. The spectator soon followed, and went into the gallery o f the House, where, t o his astonishment, h e heard one o f the longest and most brilliant speeches h e ever listened to, delivered b y this votary o f Bacchus, who was n o other than Mr. Sheridan.
