STYLE. 157 



looked closely at the drawing, and easily detected mistakes or 

 carelessness. 



He had a horror of being lengthy, and seems to have been 

 really much annoyed and distressed when he found how the 

 * Variations of Animals and Plants' was growing under his 

 hands. I remember his cordially agreeing with 'Tristram 

 Shandy's ' words, " Let no man say, * Come, I'll write a 

 duodecimo.' " 



His consideration for other authors was as marked a cha- 

 racteristic as his tone towards his reader. He speaks ^of 

 all other authors as persons deserving of respect. In cases 



where, as in the case of 's experiments on Drosera, he 



thought lightly of the author, he speaks of him in such' a 

 way that no one would suspect it. In other cases he treats 

 the confused writings of ignorant persons as though the fault 

 lay with himself for not appreciating or understanding them. 

 Besides this general tone of respect, he had a pleasant way of 

 expressing his opinion on the value of a quoted work, or his 

 obligation for a piece of private information. 



His respectful feeling was not only morally beautiful, but 

 was I think of practical use in making him ready to consider 

 the ideas and observations of all manner of people. He used 

 almost to apologise for this, and would say that he was 

 at first inclined to rate everything too highly. 



It was a great merit in his mind that, in spite of having so 

 strong a respectful feeling towards what he read, he had the 

 keenest of instincts as to whether a man was trustworthy 

 or not. He seemed to form a very definite opinion as to the 

 accuracy of the men whose books he read ; and made use of 

 this judgment in his choice of facts for use in argument or 

 as illustrations. I gained the impression that he felt this 

 power of judging of a man's trustworthiness to be of much 

 value. 



He had a keen feeling of the sense of honour that ought to 

 reign among authors, and had a horror of any kind of laxness 



