438 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



would defer reading until night ; for the moment he would enjoy the 

 astonishment which the European caused him, and any general world news I 

 could communicate." 



" . . . . The hours of that afternoon passed most pleasantly — 

 few afternoons of my life more so. It seemed to me as if I had met an old, 

 old friend. There was a friendly or good-natured abandon about Livingstone, 

 which was not lost on me. As host, welcoming one who spoke his language, 

 he did his duties with a spirit and style I have never seen elsewhere. He had 

 not much to offer, to be sure ; but what he had was mine and his. The 

 wan features, which had shocked me at first meeting, the heavy step which 

 told of age and hard travel, the gray beard and stooping shoulders, belied 

 the man. Underneath that aged and well-spent exterior lay an endless 

 fund of high spirits, which now and then broke out in peals of hearty 

 laughter; the rugged frame enclosed a very young and exuberant soul. 

 The meal — I am not sure but what we ate three meals that afternoon — was 

 seasoned with innumerable jokes and pleasant anecdotes, interesting hunting 

 stories, of which his friends Webb, Oswell, Varden, and Gordon Cumming, 

 were always the chief actors. ' You have brought me new life,' he said 

 several times, so that I was not sure but there was some little hysteria in this 

 jo vial ty and abundant animal spirits ; but as I found it continued during 

 several weeks, I am now disposed to think it natural. . . . Dr. Living- 

 stone is a truly pious man, a man deeply imbued with real religious instincts. 

 The study of the man would not be complete if we did not take the religious 

 side of his character into consideration. His religion, any more than 

 his business, is not of the theoretical kind, simply contenting itself with own- 

 ing all other religions as wrong or weak. It is of the true, practical kind, 

 never losing a chance to manifest itself in a quiet, practical way — never 

 demonstrative or loud. It is always at work. It is not aggressive, which 

 sometimes is troublesome, and often impertinent. In him religion exhibits 

 its loveliest features. It governs his conduct towards his servants, towards 

 the natives, and towards the bigoted Mussulmans even — all who come in 

 contact with him. Without religion, Livingstone, with his ardent tempe- 

 rament, his enthusiastic nature, his high spirit and courage, might have been 

 an uncompanionable man, and a hard master. Religion has tamed all these 

 characteristics; nay, if he was ever possessed of them, they have been 

 thoroughly eradicated. Whatever was crude or wilful, religion has refined, 

 and has made him — to speak the earnest, sober truth — the most agreeable of 

 companions and indulgent of masters. 



" I have been frequently ashamed of my impatience while listening to 

 his mild rebuke of a dishonest lazy servant ; whereas had the servant been 

 mine, his dishonesty or laziness had surely been visited with prompt 

 punishment. I have ofter heard our servants discuss our respective merits. 



