Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/237

211 SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL 211 heart finds most desirable. It is biography — but it is autobiography as well. Every one could and did pour his story into Dr. Garnett's ear, and he was indefatigable in his attempts to help and relieve. . . . He would rewrite a piece of doggerel ; he would touch up and correct a poor essay, and send it with a letter of recommendation to an editor. Above all, he was ceaselessly endeavouring to get work for the unemployed. His editorial friends were sometimes embarrassed by his persistence. Dr. Garnett thought that every- body was good for something, and credited every one with the same kind intentions as his own. . . . This is not the whole. Dr. Garnett never allowed himself to treat contemptuously those who were in difficulty, and no ingrati- tude wearied him out. On one subject he would never speak — the oddities of the Reading Room. I shall never forget one little experience I had of his behaviour. One day I happened to be with him in his own room at the British Museum. A poor lady came in with a pitiful and an embarrassing story. It was almost impossible to avoid a smile at the way she told it. Dr. Garnett listened with the utmost courtesy, promised to do what he could, and showed her out. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would at least have exchanged a friendly smile over the interview. Dr. Garnett carefully looked elsewhere, and turned the conversation on to something else. She was a woman, and she was destitute — it was enough. More than once I tried to get from him his impressions of Grub Street, but on this subject his lips were locked. What all this means very few can understand ; but the better one understands the more he will admire Dr. Garnett. I had a true reverence for his character. I take next two passages from the essay on Learning to Read, The writer here speaks of matters that bring him specially close to all book-lovers, and the common interest will make them quick to gauge the accent. An essay on Emerson may merely im- press them, memories of Meredith can be read impersonally — it is the biographer's success, indeed, to be overlooked ; but when he deals with our special hobby, as here, our eyes are fixed on his own bearing, our approval relates directly to the man.