64 EXTRACTS FBOM THE MEMORANDUM 



the lenses that he wore for their preservation, like sun- 

 light made compact by a burning* glass, but whenever 

 his features were animated by a smile or brightened into 

 a laugh, they were an admirable picture of unbound- 

 ed, unalloyed good humour, and he was not sparing 

 of a hearty laugh neither, though he had to do with 

 diplomacy, among the neighbouring tribes, in his life- 

 time ; in address and demeanour he was cordial and 

 unassuming, never for a moment presuming upon his 

 superiority or evincing self importance, he was not 

 without dignity nevertheless, but it was of that genu- 

 ine nature which does not require the crutches of form- 

 al ceremony, cold reserve, or stiff hauteur to prop it 

 up. 



He was conversant with most branches of human 

 learning and profound in many: Philology, in all its 

 ramifications and to its utmost somces, the histon 

 of mankind, with all its collateral topic-, e\en through 

 the. obscurest eras, antiquarian research, in many of 

 its branches, zoology even to its minutiaj, and poli- 

 tical economy, for all its vestments of sophistry and 

 mysticism; these were familiar to him. 



A great portion of his immense knowledge seems to 

 have been acquired in a way which is perfectly unique 

 and peculiar to himself, \i/., he lias used the art of 

 design as a sort of short hand writing, he lias turned it 

 to account in acquiring a maximum of knowledge in a 

 minimum of time, just as a mathematician employs 

 algebra when he wishes to effect with ease and rapidity 

 involved and laborious calculations. The number of 



drawings in the possession of A , executed by 



himself, and many of them with exquisite beauty, vig- 

 our, boldness and originality, amounts to more than 

 I en thousand. Surely the Herculean labour of this 

 great man was not borne in mind when a certain priest 

 asserted in the temple of Minerva that the efforts of 

 the moderns compared with the works of their ances- 

 tors were as the labours of pigmies to those of titans. 

 These drawings contain a series of representations of 

 costumes from the earliest accessible times to the pre- 



