GREAT MEN'S BODIES
One writer says of him: "A child-like, guileless, transparent simplicity; the utter absence of everything factitious in matter or manner—a kindliness of nature that made him flexible to every human sympathy—a chivalry of sentiment that raised him above the petty jealousies of public life—a firmness that made vacillation a thing almost impossible; a force of will and general momentum that carried all that was movable before it—a vehement utterance and overwhelming eloquence that gave him the command of the multitude; a scientific reputation that won for him the respect and attention of the more educated; a legislative faculty that framed measures upon the broadest principles; a practical sagacity that adapted them to ends they were intended to realize; a genius that in new and different circumstances could devise; coupled with a love of calculation; a capacity for business details, and administrative talent that fitted him to execute; a purity of motive that put him above all suspicion of selfishness; and a piety, unobtrusive but most profound, simple; yet intensely ardent."
And he was an orator.
J. G. Lockhart says: "Most unquestionably I have never heard, whether in England or in Scotland, or in any other country, any preacher whose eloquence is capable of producing an effect so strong and irresistible as his." Lord Jeffrey remarks: "I know not what it is; but there is something altogether remarkable about that man. It reminds me more of what one reads of as the effect of Demosthenes than anything I ever heard." Robert Hall, the greatest pulpit orator of England, wrote to him: "It would be difficult not331