JLife^ Genius^ and Personal Habits of Benoick. 99 



books and prints of animals, joking her about her sweetheart ; 

 and as he always rose very early to " waak oot^^ one morning, 

 on the stairs, I asked Sally if the old gentleman had walked 

 out. " Yes, sir ; " said the good-humoured girl, " and a very 

 nice old gentleman he is." I walked after him, and found him 

 in a place they call the grove (a long, thin, narrow belt of 

 stunted larches), playing with a group of curly rosy children, 

 for whom he was drawing funny figures on a painted bench, 

 and telling them the names of birds, insects, and plants. 

 Many of his opinions, though dropped at different times and 

 places, I may as well group together ; and omit, in some de- 

 gree, his peculiar dialect, as difficult to express on paper, and 

 awkward to those who knew him not ; though, to my oar, it 

 always seemed to give point, potency, and a sort of Doric 

 beauty to his aphoristic truths. On my remarking that the 

 pig-parsnep (JEZeracleMW*Sphondylium),orhogweed, had always 

 been a great favourite with me, as being by far the best foliage 

 for painters* foreground, he not only concurred, but ingeniously 

 explained the reason. The hemlock and parsley-leaved plants, 

 he said, were too minutely cut and divaricated ; and the but- 

 ter-bur and docks too round and heavy : now, the pig-parsnep 

 uniting the lightness of the one with the strength of the other, 

 became instantly pleasing to the eye of taste. He said, of all 

 birds he thought the dove tribe most beautiful. Their outline 

 presents every possible variety of the line of beauty ; their 

 colours are brilliant and varied ; their notes amorous and sooth- 

 ing ; their manners gentle and affectionate ; their flight both 

 rapid and graceful ; and, in all times and nations, they have 

 been emblems of peace, love, and fidelity. They have, more- 

 over, many qualities and habits exclusively peculiar to their 

 tribe; they drink differently (by immersion), and have no gall. 

 Of Lord Byron's poetry he spoke with great disgust, saying, 

 it teemed with less imagination, and more trash, in any quan- 

 tity, than that of any other great poet ; that power was the 

 prominent feature of his mind, which he prostituted ; and the 

 great failing of his heart was depravity, which he adorned. He 

 thought the romances of Sir Walter Scott breathed very large 

 and frequent aspirations of the genuine essence of poetry ; that 

 his landscapes and figures were spirited and highly coloured 

 painting, and his real characters the finest specimens of his- 

 torical portraits. Paradise, he said, was of every man's own 

 making ; all evil caused by the abuse of freewill ; happiness 

 equally distributed, and in every one's reach. " Oh ! " said 

 he, " this is a bonny world as God made it ; but man makes a 

 packhorse of Providence." He held that innumerable things 

 might be converted to our use that we ignorantly neglect ; 



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