ear
to have been kept; yet everything is frank and straight-forward.
Understanding human nature thoroughly under all its phases, he deals
wisely with men in small things as in great; but he does no one
injustice. When others are acting disingenuously towards him, though
seeing through it, he is considerate and forbearing, not taking steps
hastily, but ready to make allowances where they could be made.
Dishonesty or suspicion of it he never overlooks. In the second letter
he suspects his steward of extravagance in spending too much for
supplies of the table kept for his upper servants; yet he authorizes Mr.
Lear to retain him, if, on looking into his accounts, he finds him
honest; intimating that any successor to him might act in the same way,
and a dismissal might be only a change without a benefit. His
reprobation of all dishonesty is seen in more than one of the letters,
as well as his restrained modes of dealing with it whilst affecting only
his own interests.

As regards the minutiae seen in the letters; the details respecting his
house, furniture, servants, carriages, horses, postilions, and so on,
these will be read with curiosity and interest. They suggest a new test
by which to try Washington, and let him be tried by it. We have not
before had such details from himself. It is for the first time the
curtain has been so lifted.

All great men, the very greatest, Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, Frederick,
Peter the Great, Marlborough, Alexander, all on the long list of
towering names, have had contact with small things. No pinnacle in
station, no supremacy in excellence or intellect, can exempt man from
this portion of his lot. It is a human necessity. Washington goes into
this sphere with a propriety and seemliness not always observable in
others of his high cast, but often signally the reverse. In dealing with
small things, he shows no undue tenacity of opinion; no selfishness; no
petulance; no misplaced excitements. He never plays the petty tyrant. He
does not forget himself; he does not forget others; he assumes nothing
from any exaltation in himself, but is reasonable and provident in all
his domestic and household arrangements.

Shall we seek for comparisons, or rather contrasts? With as much of
Washington's domestic portraiture before us as these letters hold up,
shall we turn to look at others? There is no difficulty, but in
selecting from the vast heap.

Frederick thought coffee too expensive an indulgenc