FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 137 



or, in the words of Mr Ray, " he did not 

 willingly let slip one moment of it unemployed." 

 He had not, therefore, yielded to the delusion, 

 that talent is a compensation for every other 

 deficiency ; and that it especially exempts the 

 possessor from the industry which is sometimes 

 spoken of as more appropriate to less gifted indi- 

 viduals. It had, however, been well for those 

 who hold this erroneous notion had they under- 

 stood, that talent, without the knowledge to be 

 acquired by application, is mere power without 

 skill ; and that there are strong reasons for be- 

 lieving, that what is called genius consists greatly 

 in the aptitude for patient attention. But there 

 were other component qualities in the character 

 of Mr Willughby, of equal value with any of the 

 preceding, namely, his entire dominion over the 

 carnal propensities of his nature, the indulgence 

 of which has ever been most justly reckoned as 

 the most deadly foe to greatness. Hence, his time 

 was not devoured by the long intervals which 

 even occasional excesses demand from their com- 

 mencement to the cessation of their effects, nor 

 his faculties beclouded and weakened by the sym- 

 pathy of his mind with a disordered body, nor his 

 moral feelings perverted by the grossness which 

 is transferred to them from the pampered appetites 

 of the voluptuary ; but his understanding and 

 heart were ever replete with the tranquillity, purity, 

 and brightness of the early summer's morning, 

 rendering every perception correct, every emotion 

 just, every purpose exalted. 



