CORRESPONDENCE. 119 



novels, travels, history, was read aloud to him. He took so 

 wide an interest in life, that there was much to occupy him 

 in newspapers, though he laughed at the wordiness of the 

 debates ; reading them, I think, only in abstract. His interest 

 in politics was considerable, but his opinion on these matters 

 was formed rather by the way than with any serious amount 

 of thought. 



After he had read his paper, came his time for writing 

 letters. These, as well as the MS. of his books, were written 

 by him as he sat in a huge horse-hair chair by the fire, his 

 paper supported on a board resting on the arms of the chair. 

 When he had many or long letters to write, he would dictate 

 them from a rough copy ; these rough copies were written on 

 the backs of manuscript or of proof-sheets, and were almost 

 illegible, sometimes even to himself. He made a rule of 

 keeping all letters that he received ; this was a habit which 

 he learnt from his father, and which he said had been of 

 great use to him. 



He received many letters from foolish, unscrupulous people, 

 and all of these received replies. He used to say that if he did 

 not answer them, he had it on his conscience afterwards, and 

 no doubt it was in great measure the courtesy with which he 

 answered every one, which produced the universal and wide- 

 spread sense of his kindness of nature, which was so evident 

 on his death. 



He was considerate to his correspondents in other and lesser 

 things, for instance when dictating a letter to a foreigner he 

 hardly ever failed to say to me, " You'd better try and write 

 well, as it's to a foreigner." His letters were generally written 

 on the assumption that they would be carelessly read ; thus, 

 when he was dictating, he was careful to tell me to make an 

 important clause begin with an obvious paragraph " to catch 

 his eye," as he often said. How much he thought of the trouble 

 he gave others by asking questions, will be well enough shown 

 by his letters. It is difficult to say anything about the general 



