He had culture, imagination, fancy, and other gifts of a born man of letters; the faculty of slow reflective brooding was his, and he often saw both deep and far; he was artificial, but he was no pharisee, and he was never petty.
Morley reflects on the literary and intellectual qualities of a prominent figure, emphasizing his depth and character.
Share
More from John Morley
Gladstone protested against the bill as “inequitable, unusual, and unwise,” and it was largely modified in committee.
They might learn how the true gentleman speaks of one whom he cannot but admit to have devoted a long life to the search of truth, and allow to have sacrificed every personal prospect to the promulgation of that which appeared to him as…
If they, situated exactly as we are, decline to join, we are not bound single-handed to make up the deficiencies of the rest.
For this line of contention he was called an “unpatriotic trumpet of disaster,” and other names commonly bestowed on all men in all countries who venture to say that what chances for the hour to be a popular war is a blunder.
Other voices in this conversation
