APPENDIX. 135 



was fcarcely ever known to flart a new topic himfelf, or to an- Account of 

 pear unprepared upon thofe topics that were introduced by 

 others. Indeed, his converfation was never more amufing than 

 when he gave a loofe to his genius, upon the very few branches 

 of knowledge of which he only poffeffed the outlines. 



The opinions he formed of men, upon a flight acquaintance, 

 were frequently erroneous ; but the tendency of his nature in- 

 clined him much more to blind partiality, than to ill-founded 

 prejudice. The enlarged views of human affairs, on which his 

 mind habitually dwelt, left him neither time nor inclination to 

 ftudy, in detail, the uninterefling peculiarities of ordinary 

 characters ; and accordingly, though intimately acquainted with 

 the capacities of the intellect, and the workings of the heart, 

 and accuftomed, in his theories, to mark, with the molt delicate 

 hand, the nicefl: (hades, both of genius and of the paffions ; 

 yet, in judging of individuals, it fometimes happened, that his 

 eftimates were, in a furprifing degree, wide of the truth. 



The opinions, too, which, in the thoughtlefTnefs and confi- 

 dence of his focial hours, he was accuflomed to hazard on books, 

 and on queftions of fpeculation, were not uniformly fuch as 

 might have been expected from the fuperiority of his under- 

 ftanding, and the fingular confiftency of his philofophical prin- 

 ciples. They were liable to be influenced by accidental cir- 

 cumftances and by the humour of the moment ; and when re- 

 tailed by thofe who only faw him occafionally, fuggefted falfe 

 and contradictory ideas of his real fentiments. On thefe, how- 

 ever, as on mod other occafions, there was always much truth, 

 as well as ingenuity, in his remarks ; and if the different opi- 

 nions which, at different times, he pronounced upon the fame 

 fubject, had been all combined together, fo as to modify and li- 

 mit each other, they would probably have afforded materials for 

 a decifion, equally compreheniive and juft. But, in the fociety 

 of his friends, he had no difpofition to form thofe qualified con- 



clufions 



