chosen his peculiar sphere of action, and who prefers being of general
utility to the scholar-like pursuit of any one branch of science
exclusively, is not bound to present credentials of full and perfect
mastership, such as are required from a professor of a university. His
pursuit of facts must of necessity be for the purpose of illustrating
general principles in political or moral science; and where more than a
certain amount of knowledge is not laid claim to, the absence of more is
no imputation.

Lord Brougham is thoroughly individualized as regards his talents and all
that constitutes idiosyncratic difference, even while he is identified
with the political and moral advancement of the people. During all the
agitations of a period almost unparalleled, he has remained untainted by
the influence of party spirit. That he has entered, and hotly too, into
almost every question of any moment that has come before the Legislature
during many years is true; but he has never appeared in the character of
a partisan; he has always been the consistent supporter of liberal
measures _per se_, and not because they were the means adopted by a party
to gain political power. With his political steadfastness he has
preserved his intellectual integrity from profanation. For although, had
he early devoted his powers to the study of abstract or practical
science, as a leading and not a subsidiary pursuit, the acuteness of his
mind was such, that he must have risen to eminence upon the basis of
discovery, yet it is no slight proof how little the struggles of the
world affect superior intellects, that he has all along turned aside,
with a never cloying avidity, to the pursuits of mind--to science, to
literature, and to philosophy.

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