drive you home."--"Fear, grandmama," innocently replied the child, "I
never saw FEAR; what is it?"
Perhaps, the frequent repetition of this anecdote, and the admiration
which the sweet simplicity of the child's wonderful answer must
naturally create in the bosom of every virtuous friend, had no small
share in fixing his heroic character. He had never seen fear, he knew
not what it was. What a reflection for an incipient hero, when he became
capable of comprehending the full force of his own artless expression!
If he ever lived to see fear, it was only in the enemies of his country;
if to know it, it was only by name.
There seems good reason to suppose, that his invincible spirit was
visible at an early age, as well as his generally mild and amiable
disposition. He was a prodigious favourite with his indulgent mother:
who was herself a woman of considerable firmness and fortitude, though
of a delicate habit, as well as of great meekness and piety: and, in one
of the little customary strifes of brothers, the present earl being his
antagonist, when requested, by some friends, who were alarmed at the
noise, to interfere in behalf of the youngest, is well recollected to
have replied, with the utmost composure, and a very visible satisfaction
depicted on her expressive countenance--"Let them alone, little Horace
will beat him; let Horace alone!"
The brother of Mrs. Nelson, Captain Maurice Suckling, married to a
sister of the present Lord Walpole, was a naval commander of very
considerable skill and bravery: he frequently visited his sister; and
was, also, particularly fond of Horatio. He had, doubtless, heard the
anecdote respecting fear; to which, in his own person, he felt himself
as much a stranger as his little nephew: and, probably, was the first
friend to hail and encourage the future hero.
His sister, partial to the honourable profession of her brother, would
naturally interpret every proof of her darling son's attachment to his
uncle's person, his conversation, or even any of his professional
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