Human beings are composite creatures, and the feminine element in man is more obvious than the masculine element in woman.

Froude had a feminine disposition to be guided by feeling, and to remember old grievances as vividly as if they had happened the day before.

He was also a typical west countryman in habit of mind, as well as in face, figure, and speech.
His beautiful voice, exquisitely modulated, never raised in talk, was thoroughly Devonian.

So too were his imperfect sense of the effect produced by what he said upon ordinary minds, and his love, which might almost be called mischievous, of giving small electric shocks.

In the case of Carlyle, however, the out-cry was wholly unexpected, and for a time he was distressed, though never mastered, by it.