Si duceris ira
Servitii patiere jugum, tolerabis iniquas
Interius leges, tunc omnia jure tenebis
Cum poteris rex esse tui.
CHAPTER XIV.
GILBERT W.
The name of this personage occurs in various parts of our manuscript; but the scrap which follows, did not seem unworthy of insertion, and appears to have been drawn up with some care and pains.
The celebrated Gilbert W. was also a contemporary. He has written his own life with some diffuseness, and he who writes this account is not disposed to controvert any of his assertions, as they relate to himself. With respect to others, the case is very different. He viewed every body, who at all presumed to have opinions opposite to his own in matters of religion, politics, or literature, with a jealous and a jaundiced eye; nor could it be easy in the common intercourse of life, ever to meet with a man in these instances so inflexibly pertinacious. Our friend, it seems, and we use nearly his very words, knew him on his entrance into life. He knew him in life’s progress, knew him till within a near period to his dissolution. He was invariably the same; petulant, fond of dispute, impatient of contradiction, and estimating every one’s talents and merits merely as they harmonized with, or opposed his own prejudices and propensities; yet, in his character and conduct, he involved this singular contradiction—his demeanour in private society, was mild and urbane, and certainly unprovoking; but the moment he took his pen in hand, he appeared to divest himself of his customary garments, and to clothe himself in storm and tempest, hurling his thunderbolts like another Jupiter from Ida.
His first appearance in the schools at Cambridge can never be forgotten. He had excited a general opinion of his superior abilities, and as his waywardness of temper was also universally known, curiosity led numbers to hear him when he had to sustain the character of Respondent against three Opponents. All were surprized at his acuteness, and admired his dexterity, but all were offended with his petulance, and indignant at the asperity of manner, with which he seemed to browbeat the Moderator. Most of the auditory in appearance had made up their minds, that he was a man not to be beloved, but that he would certainly make some noise in the world.