of a most humane and benevolent heart; having a mind stored with a vast
and various collection of learning and knowledge, which he communicated
with peculiar perspicuity and force, in rich and choice expression. He
united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave
him an extraordinary advantage in arguing; for he could reason close or
wide, as he saw best for the moment. He could, when he chose it, be the
greatest sophist that ever wielded a weapon in the schools of
declamation; but he indulged this only in conversation; for he owned he
sometimes talked for victory[24]; he was too conscientious to make
errour permanent and pernicious, by deliberately writing it. He was
conscious of his superiority. He loved praise when it was brought to
him; but was too proud to seek for it. He was somewhat susceptible of
flattery[25]. His mind was so full of imagery, that he might have been
perpetually a poet. It has been often remarked, that in his poetical
pieces, which it is to be regretted are so few, because so excellent,
his style is easier than in his prose. There is deception in this: it is
not easier, but better suited to the dignity of verse; as one may dance
with grace, whose motions, in ordinary walking, in the common step, are
awkward. He had a constitutional melancholy, the clouds of which
darkened the brightness of his fancy, and gave a gloomy cast to his
whole course of thinking: yet, though grave and awful in his deportment,
when he thought it necessary or proper, he frequently indulged himself
in pleasantry and sportive sallies. He was prone to superstition, but
not to credulity. Though his imagination might incline him to a belief
of the marvellous and the mysterious, his vigorous reason examined the
evidence with jealousy. He had a loud voice, and a slow deliberate
utterance, which no doubt gave some additional weight to the sterling
metal of his conversation[26]. His person was large, robust, I may say
approaching to the gigantick, and grown unwieldy from corpulency. His
countenance was naturally of the cast of an ancient statue, but somewhat
disfigured by the scars of that _evil_, which, it was formerly imagined,
the _royal touch_[27] could cure. He was now in his sixty-fourth year,
and was become a little dull of hearing. His sight had always been
somewhat weak; yet, so much does mind govern, and even supply the
deficiency of organs, that his perceptions were uncommonly quick and
accurate[28].