90 
myself that I could do without being any thing 
more than a spectator there*.” Nevertheless, he 
appears to have settled with great comfort to him- 
self, and to the satisfaction of his friends. 
Of his conduct while he resided here, no better 
testimony can be given than that which immediately 
follows from a man of strong sense and principle, 
still more anxious about the reputation of his son 
than for his worldly advancement. ; 
* These were the sensations which revolted him at first, although 
they abated as his curiosity was awakened to the study ; and thus 
has he not unfrequently contrasted them, in the vivid language 
of the Seventh Promenade of Rousseau :— 
“ Quel appareil affreux qu'un amphithéatre anatomique, des 
cadavres puants, de baveuses et livides chairs, du sang, des in- 
testines dégotitans, des squelettes affreux, des vapeurs pestilen- 
tielles! Ce n’est pas la, sur ma parole, que jira chercher mes 
amusemens. 
“ Brillantes fleurs, émail des prés, ombrages frais, ruisseaux, 
bosquets, verdure, venez purifier mon imagination salie par 
tous ces hideux objets.” 
In a letter written at this time to his father, he tells him, ‘‘ We 
have dined with Dr. Osborn, the colleague of Dr. Denman; he 
is a man of rank in the literary world. At his house we met the 
famous, or rather infamous Dr. Shebbeare, a most entertaining 
and lively companion; the best teller of a story I ever heard, 
beyond all comparison; but a most malicious violent-tempered 
man: being an Irishman, his most predominant hatred is against 
the Scotch. He can counterfeit any dialect whatever ; his Scotch 
is the most accurate I ever heard out of that country. It is cu- 
rious to observe (as I remarked to my companion at the time) 
in these gross strong-featured minds, as in a microscope, the 
workings of those passions and dispositions, which in common 
characters are so faintly and confusedly marked, that we can 
seldom trace them to their sources, or observe their various con- 
nections and dependencies upon one another.” 
