There is a singular equity and
absence of party passion in it which gives us faith in the author's
judgment. He was Oliver's Steward of the Household, and his portrait of
him, as that of an eminently fair-minded man who knew him well, is of
great value. Carlyle has not copied it, and, as many of my readers may
never have seen it, I reproduce it here: "Before I pass further, pardon
me in troubling you with the character of his person, which, by reason of
my nearness to him, I had opportunity well to observe. His body was well
compact and strong; his stature under six feet, (I believe about two
inches;) his head so shaped as you might see it a store-house and shop
both, of a vast treasury of natural parts. His temper exceeding fiery, as
I have known, but the flame of it kept down for the most part or soon
allayed with those moral endowments he had. He was naturally
compassionate towards objects in distress, even to an effeminate measure;
though God had made him a heart wherein was left little room for any fear
but what was due to himself, of which there was a large proportion, yet
did he exceed in tenderness toward sufferers. A larger soul, I think,
hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was. I do believe, if his
story were impartially transmitted, and the unprejudiced world well
possessed with it, she would add him to her nine worthies and make that
number a _decemviri_.
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