ready excuse can be found in the circumstances of his situation. He might
be held to be the representative of liberal principles in a place where
almost the name of Liberal had, till then, been proscribed; and the
animosity toward the new Chancellor, evinced by many peers, was
calculated to induce reprisals. The eccentricities, too, of men of genius
are of such value that they may well be said to atone for themselves.

A quality of Lord Brougham's mind, that is almost as extraordinary as his
extent of information, is its singular activity. His energies never seem
to flag--even for an instant; he does not seem to know what it is to be
fatigued, or jaded. Some such quality as this, indeed, the vastness and
universality of his acquirements called for, in order to make the weight
endurable to himself, and to bear him up during his long career of
political excitement. Take the routine of a day for instance. In his
early life he has been known to attend, in his place in court, on
circuit, at an early hour in the morning. After having successfully
pleaded the cause of his client, he drives off to the hustings; and
delivers, at different places, eloquent speeches to the electors. He then
sits in the retirement of his closet to pen an address to the Glasgow
students, perhaps, or an elaborate article in the Edinburgh Review. The
active labors of the day are closed with preparation for the court
business of the following morning; and then instead of retiring to rest,
as ordinary men would, after such exertions, he spends the night in
abstruse study, or in social intercourse. Yet he would be seen as early
as eight next morning, actively engaged in the Court, in defense of some
unfortunate object of government persecution; astonishing the auditory,
and his fellow lawyers no less, with the freshness and power of his
eloquence.

A fair contrast with this history of a day, in early life, would be that