His stature was unusually high, and his person large and well
proportioned, but he was rendered uncouth in his appearance by the scars
which his scrophulous disease had impressed upon him, by convulsive
motions, and by the slovenliness of his garb. His eyes, of which the
sight was very imperfect, were of a light grey colour, yet had withal a
wildness and penetration, and at times a fierceness of expression, that
could not be encountered without a sensation of fear. He had a strange
way of making inarticulate sounds, or of muttering to himself in a voice
loud enough to be overheard, what was passing in his thoughts, when in
company. Thus, one day, when he was on a visit to Davies the bookseller,
whose pretty wife is spoken of by Churchill, he was heard repeating part
of the Lord's Prayer, and, on his saying, lead us not into temptation,
Davies turned round, and whispered his wife, "You are the occasion of
this, my dear."

It is said by Boswell, that "his temperament was so morbid, that he
never knew the natural joy of a free and vigorous use of his limbs: when
he walked, it was the struggling gait of one in fetters; when he rode,
he had no command or direction of his horse, but was carried as if in a
balloon." His daily habits were exceedingly irregular; he took his meals
at unusual hours; and either ate voraciously, or abstained rigorously.
He studied by fits and starts; but when he did read, it was with such
rapidity and eagerness, that, as some one said, it seemed as if he would
tear out the heart of the book he was upon. He could with difficulty
believe any one who spoke of having read any book from the beginning to
the end. His mode of composition was in like manner vigorous and hasty;
though his sentences have all the appearance of being measured; but it
was his custom to speak no less than to write with a studious attention
to the numerousness of his phrase, so that he was enabled to do that by
habit which others usually accomplish by a particular effort.