"I look with much anxiety to your _Launch_, (which I wish had been the
title of your work)--the first of any promise in Virginia, heartily
desiring it God-speed--yet fearing that you may meet with some
inaptitude or distaste to mere literary contribution from the educated
of our citizens. This, however, cannot last long; you may feel it at
the outset, but it will soon end; for I doubt not that the Messenger,
as one of its best effects, will draw into literary exercise the
talents which now lie fallow throughout the community, or which have
long extravasated in politics and professions. The mind of Virginia is
unquestionably a quarry from which much that is precious may be
extracted; and you may and I hope will be able to expose its strata to
the light, as the huntsman of the Andes exposed to the eye of the
world, at the foot of the yielding shrub which he had seized upon for
support, how rich and vast was the treasure which an unexamined surface
had concealed."