If my father had been less goodnatured in the sporting relations of his
vast estates, or less magnificent in dealing with his fortune, or even if
he had failed to exhibit the intellectual force which always characterised
his letters on public matters, I dare say that his oddities would have
condemned him to ridicule, and possibly to dislike. But every one of the
principal gentlemen of his county, whose judgment was valuable, has told me
that he was a remarkably able man, and that his failure in public life
was due to his eccentricities, and in no respect to deficiency in those
peculiar mental qualities which make men feared and useful in Parliament.
I could not forbear placing on record this testimony to the high mental
and the kindly qualities of my beloved father, who might have passed for
a misanthrope or a fool. He was a man of generous nature and powerful
intellect, but given up to the oddities of a shyness which grew with
years and indulgence, and became inflexible with his disappointments and
affliction.
There was something even in the Rector's kind and ceremonious greeting
which oddly enough reflected the mixed feelings in which awe was not
without a place, with which his neighbours had regarded my dear father.
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