comprehension, that he perceived various combinations in an instant; he
caught truth as she darted towards him, saw all her fair proportion at a
glance, and the flash of his eye spoke the quick senses which conveyed
intelligence to his mind; the sensorium indeed was capacious, and the
sage imagined he saw the lucid beam, sparkling with love or ambition, in
characters of fire, which a graceful curve of the upper eyelid shaded.
The lips were a little deranged by contempt; and a mixture of vanity and
self-complacency formed a few irregular lines round them. The chin had
suffered from sensuality, yet there were still great marks of vigour in
it, as if advanced with stern dignity. The hand accustomed to command,
and even tyrannize, was unnerved; but its appearance convinced Sagestus,
that he had oftener wielded a thought than a weapon; and that he had
silenced, by irresistible conviction, the superficial disputant, and the
being, who doubted because he had not strength to believe, who, wavering
between different borrowed opinions, first caught at one straw, then at
another, unable to settle into any consistency of character. After gazing
a few moments, Sagestus turned away exclaiming, How are the stately oaks
torn up by a tempest, and the bow unstrung, that could force the arrow
beyond the ken of the eye!

What a different face next met his view! The forehead was short, yet well
set together; the nose small, but a little turned up at the end; and a
draw-down at the sides of his mouth, proved that he had been a humourist,
who minded the main chance, and could joke with his acquaintance, while
he eagerly devoured a dainty which he was not to pay for. His lips shut
like a box whose hinges had often been mended; and the muscles, which
display the soft emotion of the heart on the cheeks, were grown quite
rigid, so that, the vessels that should have moistened them not having
much communication with the grand source of passions, the fine volatile
fluid had evaporated, and they became mere dry fibres, which might be
pulled by any misfortune that threatened himself, but were not
sufficiently elastic to be moved by the miseries of others. His joints
were inserted compactly, and with celerity they had performed all the
animal functions, without any of the grace which results from the
imagination mixing with the senses.

A huge form was stretched near him, that exhibited marks of overgrown
infancy; every part was relaxed; all appeared