514 SKETCH OF THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF 



examples of power, and are bound to them by a gratitude unqualified by 

 any pretensions. Assuredly, those who knew the history of Sir James 

 Mackintosh, and were conscious of his extraordinary acquirements, were 

 as much surprised as Mr. Canning had been, to find that he was not 

 placed in that cabinet, which he was so well fitted to inform by his 

 wisdom, and to moderate by his counsels. 



It is not, however, my desire to speak of this illustrious man as a 

 politician much less as a party man. His merit and his pretensions 

 have placed him, and will maintain him with posterity, in a position far 

 above those who were engaged in the petty strife of party, aud the con- 

 tentions for power. His genius and his talents will shed a lustre over 

 the age in which he lived, when his more fortunate competitors for 

 temporary objects are forgotten. As an elegant writer, a consummate 

 master of metaphysics and moral philosophy ; as a profound historian ; 

 as an accomplished orator, he will be known to all future times. The 

 charms of his conversation the pleasure and the instruction which 

 were found in his society, can be appreciated by contemporaries only, 

 who enjoyed the opportunity of intercourse with him. They alone can 

 bear testimony to that urbanity of manner, and that sweetness of temper, 

 which mitigated the awe inspired by the superiority of his mind and the 

 profoundness of his knowledge, and made the approach to him not only 

 safe, but delightful which conciliated confidence, and softened the emo- 

 tions of envy. Of that passion he was himself altogether unconscious 

 and incapable. His greatest pleasure was to find cause for encomium in 

 others, and to draw merit from obscurity. He loved truth for its own 

 sake, and exercised his mighty power in dialectics, not for his own repu- 

 tation, but for the investigation of truth. As a critic, he was inclined 

 more to candour than severity. He was touched by whatever was just, 

 original, or worthy of praise ; he sought after it with as much ardour as 

 others feel in the detection of faults. His wit did not require the foil of 

 deformity to give it splendour; its brilliancy was best displayed in 

 illustrating beauty, for which he had the keenest relish. He possessed, 

 in an eminent degree, one of the most amusing faculties of wit, a lively 

 sense of the ridiculous ; but he could laugh at folly without exciting 

 anger or fear, could be just without an air of severity, entertaining 

 without satire, and brilliant without sarcasm. No man ever lived more 

 in society, or shone more in conversation ; yet it would be difficult I 

 should say, impossible, to ascribe a sentiment, or even an original 

 sentence to him, the least tinctured with envy, malice, or uncharitableness. 



But I have been betrayed by the subject further than I intended. 

 The memory of departed excellence, ' like the sound of distant music, 

 is pleasing, though mournful to the soul.' Even this melancholy tribute, 

 in awakening recollections of the past, is not without its charm. One 

 thing only is wanting to make it a source of consolation, and even of 

 pleasure that he could but be conscious of the genuine affection and 

 pious feeling with which it is paid. 



