but
ten thousand other thoughts rare and beautiful, continued to bubble
up, after all effort ceased.

No man had a more delicate or subtle wit than Prentiss, or a more
Falstaffian humor when it suited his purpose. Who will ever forget the
spending of a social dinner hour with him, when his health was high
and his mind at ease? Who so lovely?--who so refined? What delight
was exhibited by sweet ladies who listened to his words! Who could
so eloquently discourse of roses and buds, of lilies and pearls, of
eyes and graces, of robes and angels, and yet never offend the most
sensitive of the sex, or call other than the blush of pleasure and
joy to the cheek? Who could, on the "public day," ascend so gracefully
from the associations of tariffs, and banks, and cotton, and sugar,
to greet the fair ladies that honored him with their presence? How
he would lean toward them, as he dwelt upon "the blessed of all God's
handiwork," compared their bright eyes to "day-stars" that lit up the
dark recesses of his own clouded imagination; and how he would revel,
like another Puck, among the rays and beams of smiles called forth by
his own happy compliments--and how he would change from all this, and
in an instant seemingly arm himself with the thunderbolts of Jove,
which he would dash with appalling sound among his antagonists, or at
principles he opposed, and yet with such a charm, with such a manner,
that these very daughters of the sunny South who had listened to his
syren-song so admiringly, would now stare, and wonder, and pallor, and
yet listen, even as one gazes over the precipice, and is fascinated at
the very nearness to destruction.

Prentiss had originally a constitution of iron; his frame was so
perfect in its organization, that, in spite of the most extraordinary
negligence of health, his muscles had all the compactness, glossiness,
and distinctiveness of one who had specially trained by diet and
exercise. It was this constitution that enabled him to accomplish
so much in so short a time. He could almost wholly discard sleep for
weeks, with apparent impunity; he could eat or starve; do anything
that would kill ordinary men, yet never feel a twinge of pain. I
saw him once amidst a tremendous political excitement; he had been
talking, arguing, dining, visiting, and traveling, without rest for
three whole days. His companions would steal away at times for sleep,
but Prentiss was like an ever-busy spirit, here, and there, and