56 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



virile task ; and the teaching lasted him through 

 life. Immersed as she was in the day's movements 

 and buzzed about by leading Liberals, she handed 

 on to him her creed in politics : an enduring kind- 

 ness for Italy, and a loyalty, like that of many 

 clever women, to the Liberal party with but small 

 regard to men or measures. This attitude of mind 

 used often to disappoint me in a man so fond of 

 logic ; but I see now how it was learned from the 

 bright eyes of his mother and to the sound of the 

 cannonades of 1848. To some of her defects, 

 besides, she made him heir. Kind as was the bond 

 that united her to her son, land and even pretty, 

 she was scarce a woman to adorn a home ; loving 

 as she did to shine ; careless as she was of domestic, 

 studious of public graces. She probably rejoiced 

 to see the boy grow up in somewhat of the image 

 of herself, generous, excessive, enthusiastic, external ; 

 catching at ideas, brandishing them when caught ; 

 fiery for the right, but always fiery ; ready at fifteen 

 to correct a consul, ready at fifty to explain to any 

 artist his own art. 



The defects and advantages of such a training 

 were obvious in Fleeming throughout life. His 

 thoroughness was not that of the patient scholar, 

 but of an untrained woman with fits of passionate 

 study; he had learned too much from dogma, 

 given indeed by cherished lips ; and precocious as 

 he was in the use of the tools of the mind, he was 



