SOURCE: "Alms for Oblivion: The Minor Writings of Charles Brockden Brown," in The Cornhill Magazine, New Series, Vol. XIII, July-December, 1902, pp. 494-506.

In the following essay, Garnett reviews some of Brown's literary fragments, observing that these works reflect the same theme as his novels, that is, the effects of abnormal events on the development of human character.

 Time hath, my Lord, a wallet on his back
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion.
Troilus and Cressida. 

There is a celebrated dictum of Keats—not to be told in Gath, for in his day it made sport for the Philistines—to the effect that

 Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter. 

Such must also have been the opinion of a contemporary poet, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, for in a letter to his friend Kelsall he describes himself as the author of many celebrated unwritten productions, 'among which I particularly...