all regarding the late advancement of others of the profession to that dignity, and what influenced him still more, because he thought he could be of more use to his friends in the House of Commons. He refused for a course of years the first situations from motives of principle and friendship. This last, however great his other qualities, was in truth the predominant feature of his character. In the various occurrences of life, it required the whole force of his reason to keep this within the bounds of wisdom. The progress of his fortune as well as the habits of his profession connected him with many, not one of whom he ever forsook. There was no sacrifice he was not ready to make to any of his connections, no fatigue which he would not undergo, no risk which he would not run. The Greatest Person in the kingdom said he never knew friendship till he knew him. The most obscure connection he had cannot say he slighted him, or suffered a slight to pass upon him absent or present.
"His character would not be human without some shades. He was used to say of himself that he loved and hated in the extreme. He certainly had very little mercy on those who excited his contempt by any tendency to meanness, mischief, or malignity, while he scarce could be induced to allow a fault in those he loved. He carried this so far that he always retained a strong prejudice on the side of such causes as he once maintained. His excessive habit of business made even relaxation after a short time burdensome to him, and at intervals tiresome, which joined to the sensibility of his character made his temper sometimes difficult. He said of himself that he was an Epicurean not a Stoic, and that he did not devote more time to the society of his friends, than Sir Matthew Hale did to writing in another profession, which belonged to a different class of men to inculcate.[1] He perhaps spared himself as little in his pleasures as in his business, and might by this means have contributed to break up a
- ↑ The allusion is to Sir Matthew Hale's writings on Theology: The Nature of Religion and other works.
