BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAD. 17 



an unsleeping insight; and whatever faults or ob 

 structions of temperament might cloud it, he was not 

 disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his youth, he 

 said, one day, &quot; The other world is all my art : my 

 pencils will draw no other ; my jack-knife will cut 

 nothing else ; I do not use it as a means.&quot; This was 

 the muse and genius that ruled his opinions, conver 

 sation, studies, work, and course of life. This made 

 him a searching judge of men. At first glance he 

 measured his companion, and, though insensible to 

 some fine traits of culture, could very well report his 

 weight and calibre. And this made the impression 

 of genius which his conversation sometimes gave. 



He understood the matter in hand at a glance, and 

 saw the limitations and poverty of those he talked 

 with, so that nothing seemed concealed from such ter 

 rible eyes. I have repeatedly known young men of 

 sensibility converted in a moment to the belief that 

 this was the man they were in search of, the man 

 of men, who could tell them all they should do. His 

 own dealing with them was never affectionate, but 

 superior, didactic, scorning their petty ways, very 

 slowly conceding, or not conceding at all, the prom 

 ise of his society at their houses, or even at his 

 own. &quot; Would he not walk with them ? &quot; &quot; He 

 did not know. There was nothing so important to 

 him as his walk; he had no walks to throw away 

 on company.&quot; Visits were offered him from respect 

 ful parties, but he declined them. Admiring friends 

 offered to carry him at their own cost to the Yel 

 lowstone Eiver, to the West Indies, to South 

 America. But though nothing could be more grave 

 or considered than his refusals, they remind one in 

 quite new relations of that fop Brummel s reply to 



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