In the language of the Editor of his "Opinions", Lord Brougham is
remarkable for uniting, in a high degree of perfection, three things
which are not often found to be compatible. His learning is all but
universal: his reason is cultivated to the perfection of the
argumentative powers; and he possesses in a rare and eminent degree the
gift of eloquence.

Of his learning it may be said that there is scarcely a subject, on which
ingenuity or intellect has been exercised, that he has not probed to its
principles, or entered into with the spirit of a philosopher. That he is
a classical scholar of a high order, is shown by his criticisms on the
internal peculiarities of the works of the ancients and their styles of
composition. They evince an intimate acquaintance with the great master
pieces of antiquity. The book-worms of Universities--those scholastic
giants who are great on small questions of quantity and etymology,--who
buckle on the ponderous armor of the commentators in the contest with
more subtle wits, on the interesting doubt of a wrong reading; such men,
in the spirit of pedantry, have refused to Lord Brougham the merit of
profundity, while they allow that he possesses a sort of superficial
knowledge of the classics; they say that he can gracefully skim the
surface of the stream, but that its depths would overwhelm him. Now,
while this may be true as regards the fact, we dissent from it as regards
the inference. It is a question to be decided between the learned drones
of a by-gone school and the quicker intellects of a ripening age, which
is the better thing,--criticism on words--on accidental peculiarities of
style--or a just and sympathizing conception of the feelings of the poet
or the wisdom of the philosopher. Men are beginning to disregard the
former, while they set a high value upon the latter: so much
laboriously-earned learning is at a discount, and allowance should be