424 PRÆTERITA-II

his mother, at Denmark Hill, and, partly I suppose at his mother’s instigation, partly, the stars know how, took a true liking to me; which I could not but answer with surprised thankfulness. He was a thin, dark Highlander, with some expression of gloom on his features when at rest, but with quite the sweetest smile for his friends that I have ever seen, except in one friend of later years, of whom in his place.¹

He was zealous in the Scottish Evangelical Faith, and wholly true and upright in it, so far as any man can be true in any faith, who is bound by the laws, modes, and landed estates of this civilized world.

195. The thoughtful reader must have noted with some displeasure that I have scarcely, whether at college or at home, used the word “friendship” with respect to any of my companions. The fact is, I am a little puzzled by the specialty and singularity of poetical and classic friendship. I get, distinctively, attached to places, to pictures, to dogs, cats, and girls: but I have had, Heaven be thanked, many and true friends, young and old, who have been of boundless help and good to me,-nor I quite helpless to them; yet for none of whom have I ever obeyed George Herbert’s mandate, “Thy friend put in thy bosom; wear his eyes, Still in thy heart, that he may see what’s there; If cause require, thou art his sacrifice,”² etc. Without thinking myself particularly wicked, I found nothing in my heart that seemed to me worth anybody’s seeing; nor had I any curiosity for insight into those of others; nor had I any notion of being a sacrifice for them, or the least wish that they should exercise for my good any but their most pleasurable accomplishments,-Dawtrey Drewitt, for instance, being farther endeared because he could stand on his head, and catch vipers by the tail;³ Gershom Collingwood because

¹ [Charles Eliot Norton: see iii. § 46 (pp. 519, 520).]

² [The Church Porch, xlvi.]

³ [References, says Dr. Dawtrey Drewitt, to some games with Mrs. Severn’s children at Brantwood, and to some snakes in his rooms at Oxford. For Mr. Collingwood and French songs, see Vol. XXXI. p. xxxiv.]

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