Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/402

 378 SKETCHES OF THE

��SECTION X.

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to other parts of his character, in this the concuiTence is universal; that there never was a man better consti- tuted than Mr. Henry, to enjoy and to adorn the retire- ment, on which he had now entered. Nothing can be more amiable, nothing more interesting and attaching, than those pictures which have been furnished from every quarter, without one dissentient stroke of the pencil, of this great and virtuous man in the bosom of private life. Mr. Jeffei^son says, that " he was the best Immoured companion in the world/^ His disposition was indeed all sweetness — his affections were warm, kind, and social — his patience invincible — his temper ever unclouded, cheerful, and serene — ^liis manners plain, open, familiar, and simple — ^his conversation easy, ingenuous, and unaffected — full of entertainment, full of instruction, and irradiated with all those light and softer graces, which his genius threw without effort, over the most common subjects. It is said that there stood in the court, before his door, a large wal- nut tree, under whose shade it was his delight to pass his summer evenings, surrounded by his affectionate and happy family, and by a circle of neighbours who loved him almost to idolatry. Here he would disport himself with all the careless gaiety of infancy. Here too, he would sometimes warm the bosoms of the old, and strike fire from the eyes of his younger hearers, by recounting the tales of other times; by sketching, with the boldness of a master's hand, those great historic

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