DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0378
362 Zz/O <2/* cn. xix.
children. When I had hnished the quotation he passed on,
repeating the last lines musingly.'
Though eager in conversation on topics in which he was
interested, I never noticed the turn for controversy with which
he reproached himself when young. His manner in large
circles was very retiring, hut among intimate friends he was
easily roused, and would express himself with a force and
happiness of illustration that I never saw surpassed.
It has occurred to me in reading his journals that the
practice he pursued through life of'recording his opinions on
books and things added much to the force and precision of his
remarks. His notes on books rarely extended beyond the
limits of conversation, a little more expanded and sententious,
and lighted up with the same vein of wit and poetry. What
was common to both was the broad views, sound good sense, and
acuteness which they displayed.
But charms of conversation are but the ornaments of a great
character. What endeared him to his many devoted friends was
the warm sympathy which he took in their affairs, which made
them resort to him again and again for advice as they would
to an elder brother. I have heard of many instances of the
affectionate interest he took in the affairs of his own relations,
and indeed I have ample confirmation of this in the pages that
are before me.
The range of his reading was very wide, and it will not sur-
prise those who have followed this narrative that a large part of
the notes in his journals are on works of imagination. He was
always a great reader of novels, and during the first year or two
of his country life he gave himself up to the drama, ancient
and modern. One of the volumes of journals, ranging over
about a year, consists almost solely of short notes on the plays
of Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Shirley, Marlowe,
Massinger, Otway and Congreve, Terence and Plautus, Meta-
stasio, Monti, and Moliere, with occasional glimpses of Shake-
speare and Euripides.
children. When I had hnished the quotation he passed on,
repeating the last lines musingly.'
Though eager in conversation on topics in which he was
interested, I never noticed the turn for controversy with which
he reproached himself when young. His manner in large
circles was very retiring, hut among intimate friends he was
easily roused, and would express himself with a force and
happiness of illustration that I never saw surpassed.
It has occurred to me in reading his journals that the
practice he pursued through life of'recording his opinions on
books and things added much to the force and precision of his
remarks. His notes on books rarely extended beyond the
limits of conversation, a little more expanded and sententious,
and lighted up with the same vein of wit and poetry. What
was common to both was the broad views, sound good sense, and
acuteness which they displayed.
But charms of conversation are but the ornaments of a great
character. What endeared him to his many devoted friends was
the warm sympathy which he took in their affairs, which made
them resort to him again and again for advice as they would
to an elder brother. I have heard of many instances of the
affectionate interest he took in the affairs of his own relations,
and indeed I have ample confirmation of this in the pages that
are before me.
The range of his reading was very wide, and it will not sur-
prise those who have followed this narrative that a large part of
the notes in his journals are on works of imagination. He was
always a great reader of novels, and during the first year or two
of his country life he gave himself up to the drama, ancient
and modern. One of the volumes of journals, ranging over
about a year, consists almost solely of short notes on the plays
of Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Shirley, Marlowe,
Massinger, Otway and Congreve, Terence and Plautus, Meta-
stasio, Monti, and Moliere, with occasional glimpses of Shake-
speare and Euripides.