s done; and the theory
of "Goethe's want of feeling," want of &c. &c. appeared to him also
abundantly contemptible and forgettable.

Sterling's days, during this time as always, were full of occupation,
cheerfully interesting to himself and others; though, the wrecks of
theology so encumbering him, little fruit on the positive side could
come of these labors. On the negative side they were productive; and
there also, so much of encumbrance requiring removal, before fruit could
grow, there was plenty of labor needed. He looked happy as well as
busy; roamed extensively among his friends, and loved to have them about
him,--chiefly old Cambridge comrades now settling into occupations in
the world;--and was felt by all friends, by myself as by few, to be a
welcome illumination in the dim whirl of things. A man of altogether
social and human ways; his address everywhere pleasant and enlivening.
A certain smile of thin but genuine laughter, we might say, hung
gracefully over all he said and did;--expressing gracefully, according
to the model of this epoch, the stoical pococurantism which is required
of the cultivated Englishman. Such laughter in him was not deep, but
neither was it false (as lamentably happens often); and the cheerfulness
it went to symbolize was hearty and beautiful,--visible in the silent
unsymbolized state in a still gracefuler fashion.

Of wit, so far as rapid lively intellect produces wit, he had plenty,
and did not abuse his endowment that way, being always fundamentally
serious in the purport of his speech: of what we call humor, he had
some, though little; nay of real sense for the ludicrous, in any form,
he had not much for a man of his vivacity; and you remarked that his
laugh was limited in compass, and of a clear but not rich quality. To
the like effect shone something, a kind of childlike half-embarrassed
shimmer of expression, on his fine vivid countenance; curiously mingling
with its ardors and audacities. A beautiful childlike soul! He was
naturally a favorite in conversation, especially with all who had
any funds for conversing: frank and direct, yet polite and delicate
withal,--though at times too he could crackle with his dexterous
petulancies, making the air all like needles round you; and there was
no end to his logic when you excited it; no end, unless in some form of
silence on your part. Elderly men of reputation I have sometimes known
offended by him: for he took a frank way in the ma