40 8 Dr. Cutrie's Memoirs of the late Br, Bell. 



guifej and the higher emotions of the mind are 

 feidom compatible with a nice attention to little 

 things. It is, however, to be lamented, that 

 men of great endowments are often deficient- in 

 that felf-command, which fhould give regularity 

 to conduft, and fteadinefs to exertion. But let 

 us not too haftily condemn them. The powers 

 of genius impofe the fevereft tafk on the judg- 

 ment. The imagination, in which they refide, 

 muft always be ftrong ; the fenfibility by which 

 they are attended, muft often be wayward. To 

 reftrain, to excite, and to direct, the exertions 

 of a mind fo conftituted, according to the dic- 

 tates of reafon, muft frequently produce a moft 

 painful warfare : and, if to fucceed in fuch con- 

 tefts be not always given to the ftrong, let the . 

 weak rejoice, that they are feidom called to the 

 encounter. 



Years and experience would, moft probably, 

 have remedied, in a great meafure, the defeds 

 in Dr. Bell's charafter; and, as he became more 

 fully known, it may be prefumed, that he would 

 have acquired a degree of reputation fuited to 

 his great integrity and abilities. Yet it cannot 

 be denied, that a temper fo open, and a con- 

 du6l fo little affefted by the opinions or preju- 

 dices of others, were not perfedly calculated for 

 fuccefs in a world, in which the moft honeft 

 heart muft often be veiled, and the loftieft fpirit 

 muft fometimes bend. 



Such 



r 



