1830-40.] JAMES H. PERKINS. 155 from the pure and delightful excitement of the study, and soon abandoned it in utter disgust. His reasons for this step were the bad effects of a sedentary life upon his health, the depressing intellectual influence of the drudgery of the profession, and his repugnance to the common standard of morality prevailing at the bar. He now applied himself with great energy to the uncertain profession of literature, engaging largely in editorial labors, and frequently contributing to several important periodicals. He wrote poems, tales and essays for the Western Monthly Magazine, edited by James Hall, and was, in the early part of the year 1834, the editor of the Saturday Evening Chronicle, which, in the winter of 1835, he purchased and united with the Cincinnati Mirror, edited and published by Gallagher and Shreve. He was one of the editors of the Mirror for about six months. Thomas H. Shreve, who was a fellow-student as well as a fellow-editor at that time, in a sketch of INIi'. Perkins, said: He was in the habit of coming into the office early in the morning, and, without any prelimin- aries, would proceed to his table, and write as if ho had just stepped out a moment before. It was one of his characteristics, I think, to do what he designed doing at once, for he was a true economist of time, and acted while persons generally would be getting ready to act. He would frequently turn round and ask my opinion of some subject on which he happened to be writing. A conversation, perhaps a controversy, would ensue. His object was not so much to ascertain my opinions, as to place his own mind in a condition to act sufficiently. When our talk was ended, he would resume his wi'iting. I remember well his appearance in the Inquisition.* His speeches in that society were always truly admirable. The logic, the wit, the sunny humor, the raillery, were alike irresistible. The same wide resources of mind that he subsequently displayed in the pulpit were exhibited in the Inquisition debates, and we all felt that when we had him as an opponent we had much to fear. I remember, too, his lectures on -'Fishes and "'Insects," before the Mechanics' Institute. They embodied the most graceful and witching blending together of humor and science I ever listened to. I shall never forget his account of the ant-lion, which convulsed every one present. Had Mr. Perkins devoted himself to humorous literature, he would have stood at the head of American writers in that line. Indeed, as a humorist, original and gentle, he could scarcely be excelled. But so well developed were all the faculties of his mind, that, notwithstanding the prominence of his humor when compared with the humor of others, it only balanced his other faculties. In the summer of 1835, Mr. Perkins engaged with two or three friends in a manu- facturing enterprise at Pomeroy, Ohio. Active exercise kept him in health, and for a few months he was contented at Pomeroy, superintending and planning for a large company of workmen ; but the enterprise was not remunerative, and, in the autumn of 1837, Mr. Perkins abandoned it and returned to Cincinnati. He projected several books, but the following year completed only a series of critical and historical articles for the New York Quarterly, and the North American Review. In January, 1838, he delivered an address before the Ohio Historical Society, at Columbus, on " Subjects of Western History." He immediately afterward projected "The Annals of the West,"t Avhich, as William H. Channing has said, is "a work whose accuracy, completeness, thoroughness of research, clear method, and graceful perspicuity of style show his admirable qualifications for an historian."
- A literary society composed of the writers and students of the city.
t Annals of the West; embracing a concise account of the principal events in the Western States and Territories, from the discovery of the Mississippi Valley to 1845, by James H. Perkins. James Albach, Cincinnati, 1847.
