CHAP. VI. DEATH AND CHARACTER. 85 



more or less affects the world. It required some address, 

 even in his family, to draw him into conversation directly 

 relating to himself, his pursuits, or his success. Self- 

 opinion, self-interest, and self-indulgence, seemed alike 

 tempered in him by a modesty inseparable from merit 

 a moderation in pecuniary ambition, a habit of intense 

 application, and a temperance strict beyond the common 



standard Devoted to his family with an 



affection so lively, a manner at once so cheerful and 

 serene, that it is impossible to say whether the charm of 

 conversation, the simplicity of instruction, or the gentle- 

 ness with which it was conveyed, most endeared his 

 home a home in which from infancy we cannot recollect 

 to have seen a trace of dissatisfaction or a word of asperity 

 to any one. Yet with all this he was absolute ! And 

 it is for casuistry, or education, or rule, to explain his 

 authority ; it was an authority as impossible to dispute 

 as to define." 



Mrs. Dixon illustrates the benevolence of her father's 

 character by referring to a painful and trying event 

 in his life. Mr. Smeaton had befriended a young 

 man whom he had formerly employed as a clerk, and 

 successfully exerted himself to procure for him a situa- 

 tion of trust and responsibility, further becoming bound, 

 jointly with another gentleman, in a considerable sum. 

 The young man fell into bad habits : his expenses 

 outran his income ; he committed a forgery to meet the 

 deficiency, and he was detected, apprehended, and given 

 up to justice. The same post brought Mr. Smeaton the 

 intelligence of the young man's ruin, the claim for the 

 amount of the forfeited bond, and the refusal of the other 

 person to pay the moiety. Mrs. Smeaton's health being 

 delicate at the time, her husband suppressed all appear- 

 ance of emotion ; nor, until all was put in train for settle- 

 ment, did a word or look betray the exquisite distress 

 which these painful circumstances had caused him. He 

 even exerted himself to save the prisoner's life, in which 



