1867.] 211 [Annual Report. 



who knew him best, rnther concealed than showed his real 

 character. For instance, he was often very communicative, 

 extremely free in his mode of address, even with strangers or 

 pei'sons entitled by age or station to superior respect ; and 

 probably seemed to most people exceedingly free and easy 

 and demonstrative. At the same time, perhaps his strongest 

 characteristic was reserve ; a reserve so deep-seated and hab- 

 itual that even the familiarity of years, and entire mutual 

 confidence did not do much towards really removing it, even 

 after it had ceased to be a concealment. His repugnance to 

 speaking of matters which touched him closely, though there 

 might be nothing in them that he wished in the least to con- 

 ceal, was remarkable, and stood in strange contrast with 

 the extreme irreverence and the off-hand Avay in which he 

 handled any topics of only general interest. This reserve 

 was not alv\rays passive merely or silent, but aggressive, and 

 showed itself in banter and mystification, and in an assumed 

 cynicism, which formed much of the surface he showed to 

 the world. Beneath this, the real man was of an almost 

 childlike simplicity and aifectionateness, and of an integrity 

 that revealed itself in naive astonishment when he found the 

 disbelief in imselfish motives which he so often professed, 

 really acted upon by another. The key to much that was 

 puzzling in him is to be sought in the combination of quick 

 and even overquick perception, and a lively, impatient dispo- 

 sition (lacking at the same tune all heat of temper), with an 

 utter want of that social conscience, that mastering sense of ' 

 what is usual and what is expected, which makes better citi- 

 zens sometimes of persons far more scantily jirovided by 

 nature than he. The absence of it saved him no doubt from 

 many snares that beset most men's paths, but he missed with 

 it the useful effect of the old ruts of convention in utilizing 

 energy and in supplying a ready-made guidance always at 

 hand, and at any rate much better than none. Dr. Bryant 

 said of himself that his great defect was too much quick- 

 ness. What he needed was to run weighted and between 

 fences. Wanting these external helps, driven by his viva- 

 cious temperament, impatient of inaction and still more im- 

 patient of routine, his energies found no suitable outlet in 



