He possessed great miscellaneous erudition, and a memory perfectly surprising for its fidelity and extent.

He was a severe critic, and had a peculiar art of quoting from each author he reviewed, some part that particularly told against him.

Like most men, in the theory of philosophy he was tolerably rigid; in its practice, more than tolerably loose.

By his tenets you would have considered him a very Cato for stubbornness and sternness: yet was he a very child in his concession to the whim of the moment.

Fond of meditation and research, he was still fonder of mirth and amusement; and while he was among the most instructive, he was also the boonest of companions.