the present time his character has been practically cleared of
the former false charges. As one by one the friends who knew him
personally have spoken, it has been discovered that this cynic was one
of the tenderest and kindest men that our time has produced; this hater
of his kind, a man so soft-hearted and full of sensibility that it was
really a serious drawback to him in life; this misanthropist, one of the
most genial and kindly companions in the world; this bitter satirist, a
man who never made an enemy by his speech; this hard man, one who
actually threw money away, as all his friends thought, by bestowing it
upon every applicant whether he could afford it or not.

So great a change in the world's estimate of a man has seldom been made
after the man's death. It is to be accounted for by the fact that while
he was living his friends never told what they knew of him, and that
only very gradually did they reveal his virtues, even after he had gone,
feeling always that he would have preferred them to be silent; and by
the other fact that he often appeared other than he was, to cover up his
excessive sensibility, of which he was very much ashamed.

The world will come to a truer knowledge of him still some day; and then
it will be found what a great, loving, noble heart was hidden behind his
thin crust of cynicism,--what gentleness, what tenderness, what wise
kindness he was capable of,--what loyalty to his friends and to his
principles, what reverence for sacred things, what infinite depths of
pathos, lay beneath that mocking exterior. Let us gather together a few
of these personal traits as they have been given us by different hands,
and try to make thus a true likeness of the man as he appeared to those
who knew him best. The events of his life were few and by no means
striking.

He was born in Calcutta in 1811, and brought to England when six years
of age. At eleven he was placed in Charter-House School, where he is
described as a rosy-faced boy, with dark curling hair, and a quick
intelligent eye, ever twinkling with good-humor. For the usual school
sports he had no taste, and was only known to enjoy theatricals and
caricatures, for which he retained his taste throughout life. He was
wonderfully social and vivacious, and the best of good company, even at
this early day. Merry, light-hearted, unselfish, not very industrious,
but a fair classical scholar, and possessed of a wonderful memory,--so
he is remembered