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 1 80 INTROD UCTION

had expected of him three years ago, and more than most older heads than his do as yet know. I assure you that one needed to have his weapons well sharpened who would fence with him. He inclined to think for himself, and was naturally of an independent character. He had no small knowledge of history. In the military part of his acquire- ments, he had reduced the general principles he had at- tained to so much of system, that he was at no loss in criticising the movements of the armies and plans of at- tack, which he studied day by day in connection with the history and geography of the country. But all else of this sort I will defer speaking of till conversation favors, and will simply remark that he united in himself the tenacity of your brother Edwin's constitution with a sanguineous warmth which, so far as I know, exists in no other member of his family, unless your brother Henry should have it, and which begot that fine temperament in which calmness of demeanor was accompanied with energy in action, the most appropriate character of an officer ; while the warmth and persistency of his affections, apparent in the little boy even as in the young man, rendered his real friendship something well worth possessing and not to be forgotten by any one who possessed a heart capable of reciprocity.

I liked it well that he did not deign to fling himself upon the unworthy. He knew well he owned something which rendered him valuable, and he wanted the worth of it in exchange ; and he well knew that those who were worthy of his love would never be willing to share it save by making an equal exchange. It is natural to me to incline to well-defined traits of character rather than to the simple so-called good traits, and I believe that the hard intellectual pleases neither of us. I declare to you that, of all the images which the past gives me back, I find very

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