postrophe to the
recording angel; but at other times pure, and without blemish. The story
of Le Fevre is perhaps the finest in the English language. My Father's
restlessness, both of body and mind, is inimitable. It is the model from
which all those despicable performances against modern philosophy ought to
have been copied, if their authors had known any thing of the subject they
were writing about. My Uncle Toby is one of the finest compliments ever
paid to human nature. He is the most unoffending of God's creatures; or,
as the French express it, _un tel petit bon homme_! Of his bowling-green,
his sieges, and his amours, who would say or think any thing amiss!

IX

CHARACTER OF MR. BURKE, 1807[133]

The following speech is perhaps the fairest specimen I could give of Mr.
Burke's various talents as a speaker. The subject itself is not the most
interesting, nor does it admit of that weight and closeness of reasoning
which he displayed on other occasions. But there is no single speech which
can convey a satisfactory idea of his powers of mind: to do him justice,
it would be necessary to quote all his works; the only specimen of Burke
is, _all that he wrote_. With respect to most other speakers, a specimen
is generally enough, or more than enough. When you are acquainted with
their manner, and see what proficiency they have made in the mechanical
exercise of their profession, with what facility they can borrow a simile,
or round a period, how dexterously they can argue, and object, and rejoin,
you are satisfied; there is no other difference in their speeches than
what arises from the difference of the subjects. But this was not the case
with Burke. He brought his subjects along with him; he drew his materials
from himself. The only limits which circumscribed his variety were the
stores of his own mind. His stock of ideas did not consist of a few meagre
facts, meagrely stated, of half a dozen common-places tortured in a
thousand different ways: but his mine of wealth was a profound
understanding, inexhaustible as the human heart, and various as the
sources of nature. He therefore enriched every subject to which he applied
himself, and new subjects were only the occasions of calling forth fresh
powers of mind which had not been before exerted. It would therefore be in
vain to look for the proof of his powers in any one of his speeches or
writings: they all contain some additional proof of power. In speaking of
Bur