If his confidence proved to have been egregiously misplaced, which he was always the last to see, he did not resort to remonstrance or recrimination.

His course under such circumstances he described in a couplet from an old French comedy: "Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot; L'honnete homme trompe s'eloigne et ne dit mot.
["La Coquette corrigee.

Comedie par Mr.Delanoue, 1756." In his journal of February 15, 1851, after quoting the couplet, Macaulay adds: "Odd that two lines of a damned play, and, it should seem, a justly damned play, should have lived near a century and have become proverbial."] He was never known to take part in any family quarrel, or personal broil, of any description whatsoever.

His conduct in this respect was the result of self-discipline, and did not proceed from any want of sensibility.

"He is very sensitive," said his sister Margaret, "and remembers long, as well as feels deeply, anything in the form of slight." Indeed, at college his friends used to tell him that his leading qualities were "generosity and vindictiveness." Courage he certainly did not lack.