The Little-Go. 639 



out of innate propensity to assimilate himself to those above (how 

 few !) and those beneath him (how many !). Then again he was the 

 life and soul of our debating club. In the very head and front of 

 each harangue ; the proposer of rules and ordinances, and the pro- 

 pounder of questions for discussion. His style of oratory was the 

 most ornate and captivating I ever heard. Like Nestor is represented 

 by our immortal bard when first starting " on his legs,'* there might 

 /ou see him 



" Stand, 



Making such suasive motion with his hand, 



That it beguiled attention." 



And his periods flowed out one after the other in one rich volume of 

 sweet cadences from his lips that almost vied with his of old, whose 



** Ora rigantur aquis 

 Ceu fonte perenni." 



One speech' of his I never shall forget. The question had been 

 discussed by the advocates for the odious traffic in slaves (the subject 

 under debate), and these he took one by one, first demolished their 

 arguments with his subtle logic, then, after pulverising the speakers 

 in the mortar of his keen, unrelenting satire, tore them piecemeal, 

 anatomised, flayed them alive with the sharp knife of his severe re- 

 proach. No, never shall I forget his aspect on that memorable 

 night. He stood like a denunciator commissioned from the sphere of 

 so many suffering worlds dealing out damnation to their oppressors ! 

 With wrathful countenance, and frame quivering with agitation, his 

 heat and energy had dragged him forwards into the middle of the 

 apartment, whilst those around sat mouse-like under the fascination 

 of fear ; their faces paralyzed to deathly fixedness, and their souls suf- 

 fering under the writhing torture of the unmeasured insignificance 

 which he continued to heap upon them. You might have heard a pin 

 drop between his pauses. 



But to return from these digressions to the notice of his early life, 

 which, as before stated, I had from his own lips. As for the narra- 

 tive part of his history, I am indebted to a mutual friend who stayed 

 some time after my departure from Oxford, for I took my degree in 

 about a twelvemonth after M.'s matriculation. 



Edward Merivale M was of patrician but poor family. His 



father (himself a third son) was fain to put up with the modicum of 

 income which he derived from a small living attached to the heredi- 

 tary estate. His elder brothers had been provided for suitably in 

 life, and there remained no alternative for Edward's father but the 

 church, for which, indeed, he was as little fitted from capacity as he 

 was ill-suited from inclination. 



Like all men with small fortune, he married early in life. The 

 sister of a college friend was the object of his choice. They were a 

 most amiable, exemplary, deserving couple ; therefore they were, in 

 the worldly sense at least, not fortunate. They were poor, therefore 

 they had plenty of children. Edward, my friend,was the eldest of these 

 numerous " jewels," and, indeed, the brightest of them all. His father, 



