and do, if need were. My family gathered about him, and he conversed
with great readiness and simplicity about his travels, and whatever other
subject came up; telling us that he had been abroad five times, and was
now getting a little home-sick, and had no more eagerness for sights,
though his "gals" (as he called his daughter and another young lady)
dragged him out to see the wonders of Rome again. His manners and whole
aspect are very particularly plain, though not affectedly so; but it
seems as if in the decline of life, and the security of his position, he
had put off whatever artificial polish he may have heretofore had, and
resumed the simpler habits and deportment of his early New England
breeding. Not but what you discover, nevertheless, that he is a man of
refinement, who has seen the world, and is well aware of his own place in
it. He spoke with great pleasure of his recent visit to Spain. I
introduced the subject of Kansas, and methought his face forthwith
assumed something of the bitter keenness of the editor of a political
newspaper, while speaking of the triumph of the administration over the
Free-Soil opposition. I inquired whether he had seen S------, and he
gave a very sad account of him as he appeared at their last meeting,
which was in Paris. S------, he thought, had suffered terribly, and
would never again be the man he was; he was getting fat; he talked
continually of himself, and of trifles concerning himself, and seemed to
have no interest for other matters; and Mr. ------ feared that the shock
upon his nerves had extended to his intellect, and was irremediable. He
said that S------ ought to retire from public life, but had no friend
true enough to tell him so. This is about as sad as anything can be. I
hate to have S------ undergo the fate of a martyr, because he was not
naturally of the stuff that martyrs are made of, and it is altogether by
mistake that he has thrust himself into the position of one. He was
merely, though with excellent abilities, one of the best of fellows, and
ought to have lived and died in good fellowship with all the world.