54 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



But to return to his nature. Pythagoras, being 

 asked In what man could resemble the Divinity, 

 replied, " In beneficence and truth." Here, again, 

 we have a paradox. The man who sometimes 

 assumed the character of a fiend, and appeared to 

 strive against the native goodness of his heart, 

 answers to that of the Deity ; for inasmuch as his 

 beneficence was unquestionable, so was his veracity 

 unimpeachable. Setting aside jesting, in which none 

 dealt more largely — in fact, he was a sort of human 

 Sllenus — no man could with more safety be spoken 

 after than Mytton could. I am quite certain nothing 

 could have Induced him to have uttered a pre- 

 meditated untruth, for any unworthy purpose ; and 

 there was a good-humoured and affectionate sim- 

 plicity about him that rendered him a great favourite 

 in his neighbourhood. Again, he was no backbiter. 

 On the contrary, when he heard the " voice of 

 slander rankle on the ear," he always turned the 

 discourse, saying as my uncle Toby did, when his 

 Corporal was reckoning up all the rascals of his 

 regiment, " We will speak of this another time." 

 In his dealings with the world he was a man of 

 strict honour and probity ; and without justifying 

 his e\tra\'agance, I may be allowed to say that his 



