A. "I am always very happy to see my friends, and I should be very happy to hold a—a—a, see there now...."
Q. "A conversation you mean, sir?"
A. "Ay, a conversation. Alas! sir, you see the wretched state of my memory—see there now, I could not recollect that common word—but I cannot converse. I used to go to a house very near this where my friends assemble ... it was a—a—a Q. "Have you been reading this morning, sir?" A. "Yes, sir." Q. "What book?" A. "I forget:—here, look at it;"—handing the book. Q. "I see, it is Milton's 'Paradise Lost.'" [He then took the book out of my hand and said:—"I have only read this much" (about four pages) "these two days—but what I read yesterday, I have forgot to-day." He next read a few lines of the beginning inimitably well, and laying down the book, said] "I understand all that, but if I read any farther, I forget that passage which I understood before." Q. "But I perceive with satisfaction, sir, that your sight is very good."