324 



HOWARD. 



Howard. O r of fermented and spirit nous clrinks. Water and the 

 "" 'i'*""' plainest vegetables sufficed tor his ordinary diet, and 

 milk, tea, butter and fruit, were his luxuries. He was 

 sparing in the quantity of his food, and indifferent as 

 to the stated times of taking his meals. He was equal- 

 ly tolerant of heat, cold, a.id all the vicissitudes of cli- 

 mate ; and could without difficulty dispense with the 

 ordinary seasons and proportions of sleep. When he 

 travelled in England or Ireland, it was generally on 

 horseback, and he rode regularly about forty English 

 miles a day. He was never at a loss for an inn ; but, 

 in Ireland or the Highlands of Scotland, could accom- 

 modate himself with a little milk at any of the poor 

 cabins in his way. When he came to the town, where 

 he was to sleep, he bespoke a supper like other travel- 

 lers, but made his servant remove it, while he was 

 preparing his bread and milk. When he travelled on 

 the continent, he usually went post in his own chaise, 

 in which he slept as occasion required ; and has been 

 known to travel twenty days and twenty nights with- 

 out going to bed. He used to carry with him a small 

 tea-kettle, some cups, a little pot of sweet-meats, and a 

 few loaves. At the post-house he would get some water 

 boiled, send out for milk, and make his repast, while 

 his servant went to the inn. He was remarkably at- 

 tentive to the perfect cleanliness of his whole person ; 

 and water was always an indispensable necessary for 

 his ablutions. His peculiar habits of life, and his ex- 

 clusive attention to a few important objects, made him 

 appear more averse to society than he really was. He 

 assiduously shunned all engagements, which would 

 have involved him in the irregularities of general in- 

 tercourse ; but he received his select friends with the 

 truest hospitality, and was often extremely communi- 

 cative in conversation, enlivening a small circle with 

 the most entertaining relations of his travels and ad- 

 ventures. He was never negligent of the received 

 forms of polite life; and, however much he might be 

 charged with singularities, no one could refuse his title 

 to the character of a gentleman. He was distinguish- 

 ed especially by his respectful attention to the female 

 sex ; and nothing afforded him so much pleasure as the 

 conversation of women of good education and cultiva- 

 ted manners. His own voice and demeanour were so 

 gentle as to be almost denominated feminine; and fur- 

 nished a striking contrast to the energy of his mind 

 and the extent of his exertions. His language and 

 manners were invariably pure and delicate; and if 

 must have been no small triumph of duty over inclina- 

 tion which brought him to submit, in the prosecution 

 of his benevolent designs, to such frequent communi- 

 cations with the most abandoned of mankind. Yet 

 the nature of his errand appears to have inspired the 

 most profligate with respect; and he has himself re- 

 corded, that he never met with a single insult from the 

 prisoners, in any of the jails which he visited. He 

 possessed an elegant taste for neatness in his house and 

 furniture ; and employed much of his leisure time in 

 the cultivation of useful and ornamental plants. In 

 the course of his various travels, he brought home many 

 curious vegetables ; and his garden became an object of 

 curiosity, both for the elegant manner in which it was 

 planned, and for the excellent productions which it 

 contained. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal So- 

 ciety in 1756; and contributed a few short papers 

 which have been published in its Transactions. * His 

 philosophical researches were chiefly directed to meteor- 



ological observations, and he seldom travelled without Howard. 

 some instrument for that purpose. He applied himself, ^ Y~ 

 likewise, with considerable assiduity, to the prosecution 

 of experiments on the effects of the union of the pri- 

 mary colours in different proportions. In his intellec- 

 tual character, he discovered less of the faculty of ex- 

 tensive comprehension than of laborious accuracy. By 

 his talent of minute examination and detail, he wa's 

 peculiarly qualified for the patient investigations in 

 which he engaged ; and in his modest estimates of his 

 own abilities, he was used to say of himself, " I am 

 the plodder, who goes about to collect materials for 

 men of genius to make use of." His liberality with re- 

 spect to pecuniary concerns, was early and uniformly 

 displayed; and lie appears never to have considered 

 money in any other light than as an instrument of pro- 

 curing happiness to himself and others. Contented 

 with the competence, which he inherited, he never 

 thought of increasing it ; and made it a rule with him- 

 self to lay up no part of his annual income, but to ex- 

 pend in some useful or benevolent scheme the surplus 

 of every year. Moderate in all his desires, and un- 

 tainted by the lust of growing rich, he was elevated 

 above every thing mean and sordid. He expended 

 much in charities, and displayed in all his transactions 

 a spirit of the utmost honour and generosity. He im- 

 bibed from his earliest years a devout principle of reli- 

 gion, which continued steady and uniform through 

 every period of his life. The body of Christians, to 

 whom he particularly attached himself, were the Bap- 

 tists; and the system of belief, to which he adhered, 

 was what has generally been called moderate Calvin- 

 ism. But he was always less solicitous about modes 

 and opinions, than the internal spirit of piety and sin- 

 cerity ; and though always warmly attached to what- 

 etfer interests he espoused, he possessed that true spirit 

 of Catholicism, which led him to honour virtue and re- 

 ligion wherever he found them. It was his constant 

 practice to join in the service of the established church, 

 when he had not the opportunity of attending a dis- 

 senting place of worship ; and he often dwells in hi 

 works, with great complacency, on the pure zeal and 

 genuine Christian charity, which he frequently disco- 

 vered among the Roman Catholic clergy. But the pe- 

 culiar feature of his character certainly consists in that 

 decisive energy, and unshaken perseverance, with 

 which he prosecuted the great work of benevolence, to 

 which he seemed to have devoted his life. He was 

 distinguished by decision and dispatch in all his pro- 

 ceedings ; and this was rather the predominant habit 

 of his mind, than the occasional result of any excited 

 feeling. " At no time of his life," says his friend and 

 biographer Dr Aikin, " was he without some object of 

 warm pursuit ; and, in every thing he pursued, he was 

 indefatigable in aiming at perfection. Give him a hint 

 of any thing he had left short, or any new acquisition 

 to be made ; and, while you might suppose he was de- 

 liberating about it, you were surprised with finding it 

 was done." Nor was it during a short period of ar- 

 dour, that his exertions were thus awakened. He had 

 the still rarer quality of being able, for any length of 

 time, to bend all the powers and faculties of his mind 

 to one point, unseduced by every allurement, which 

 curiosity or any other affection might throw in his 

 way, and unsusceptible of that satiety and disgust, 

 which are so apt to steal upon a protracted pursuit." 

 " Impressed with the idea of the importance of his 



" See the Phil Trans, vols. liv. Ivii. Ixi. 



