STYLE. 



133 



children — my brother George having drawn by far the most. 

 It was delightful to draw for him, as he was enthusiastic in 

 his praise of very moderate performances. I remember well 

 his charming manner of receiving the drawings of one of his 

 daughters-in-law, and how he would finish his words of praise 



by saying, "Tell A , Michael Angelo is nothing to it." 



Though he praised so generously, he always looked closely at 

 the drawing, and easily detected mistakes or carelessness. 



He had a horror of being lengthy, and seems to have 

 been really much annoyed and distressed when he found how 

 the * Variations of Animals and Plants ' was growing under 

 his hands. I remember his cordially agreeing with ' Tristram 

 Shandy's ' words, " Let no man say, ' Come, I'll write a 

 duodecimo.' " 



His consideration for other authors was as marked a char- 

 acteristic as his tone towards his reader. He speaks of all 

 other authors as persons deserving of respect. In cases 



where, as in the case of 's experiments on Drosera, he 



thought lightly of the author, he speaks of him in such a way 

 that no one would suspect it. In other cases he treats the 

 confused writings of ignorant persons as though the fault lay 

 with himself for not appreciating or understanding them. 

 Besides this general tone of respect, he had a pleasant way of 

 expressing his opinion on the value of a quoted work, or his 

 obligation for a piece of private information. 



His respectful feeling was not only morally beautiful, but 

 was I think of practical use in making him ready to consider 

 the ideas and observations of all manner of people. He used 

 almost to apologise for this, and would say that he was at 

 first inclined to rate everything too highly. 



It was a great merit in his mind that, in spite of having so 

 strong a respectful feeling towards what he read, he had the 

 keenest of instincts as to whether a man was trustworthy or ' 

 not. He seemed to form a very definite opinion as to the 

 accuracy of the men whose books he read ; and made use of 

 this judgment in his choice of facts for use in argument or 

 as illustrations. I gained the impression that he felt this 



