ace was always noted for his vivacity and courage; and no less,
it seems, for the swift and surprising progress he made in all parts of
literature: for diligence in his studies in the hours of study, he
had hardly his equal. This it seems was his general character at the
university; and it gained him many friends among the more learned; while
those who did not love him, feared him, by reason of the offence his
vivacity made him too ready to give, and of the courage he shewed in
supporting the offence when given; which procured him as many followers
as he pleased among the mischievous sort.--No very amiable character,
you'll say, upon the whole.

But my brother's temper was not more happy. His native haughtiness could
not bear a superiority so visible; and whom we fear more than love, we
are not far from hating: and having less command of his passions than
the other, he was evermore the subject of his perhaps indecent
ridicule: so that every body, either from love or fear, siding with his
antagonist, he had a most uneasy time of it while both continued in the
same college.--It was the less wonder therefore that a young man who is
not noted for the gentleness of his temper, should resume an antipathy
early begun, and so deeply rooted.

He found my sister, who waited but for the occasion, ready to join him
in his resentments against the man he hated. She utterly disclaimed
all manner of regard for him: 'Never liked him at all:--His estate was
certainly much incumbered: it was impossible it should be otherwise; so
entirely devoted as he was to his pleasures. He kept no house; had no
equipage: Nobody pretended that he wanted pride: the reason therefore
was easy to be guessed at.' And then did she boast of, and my brother
praised her for, refusing him: and both joined on all occasions to
depreciate him, and not seldom made the occasions; their displeasure
against him causing every subject to run into this, if it began not with
it.

I was not solicitous to vindicate him when I was not joined in their
reflection. I told them I did not value him enough to make a difference
in the family on his account: and as he was supposed to have given
much cause for their ill opinion of him, I thought he ought to take the
consequence of his own faults.

Now and then indeed, when I observed that their vehemence carried them
beyond all bounds of probability in their charges against him, I thought
it but justice to put in a word for him. Bu