ubt as that there is not a particle of vanity
in it, any more than of false modesty or grimace.[289] While realizing
fully the fact of it, and the worth of the fact, there is not in his
whole being a fibre that answers falsely to the charmer's voice. Few men
in the world, one fancies, could have gone through such grand displays
of fireworks, not merely with so marvellous an absence of what the
French call _pose_, but unsoiled by the smoke of a cracker. No man's
strong individuality was ever so free from conceit.

Other personal incidents and habits, and especially some matters of
opinion of grave importance, will help to make his character better
known. Much questioning followed a brief former reference to his
religious belief, but, inconsistent or illogical as the conduct
described may be, there is nothing to correct or to modify in my
statement of it;[290] and, to what otherwise appeared to be in doubt,
explicit answer will be afforded by a letter, written upon the youngest
of his children leaving home in September 1868 to join his brother in
Australia, than which none worthier appears in his story. "I write this
note to-day because your going away is much upon my mind, and because I
want you to have a few parting words from me, to think of now and then
at quiet times. I need not tell you that I love you dearly, and am very,
very sorry in my heart to part with you. But this life is half made up
of partings, and these pains must be borne. It is my comfort and my
sincere conviction that you are going to try the life for which you are
best fitted. I think its freedom and wildness more suited to you than
any experiment in a study or office would have been; and without that
training, you could have followed no other suitable occupation. What you
have always wanted until now, has been a set, steady, constant purpose.
I therefore exhort you to persevere in a thorough determination to do
whatever you have to do, as well as you can do it. I was not so old as
you are now, when I first had to win my food, and to do it out of this
determination; and I have never slackened in it since. Never take a mean
advantage of any one in any transaction, and never be hard upon people
who are in your power. Try to do to others as you would have them do to
you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes. It is much better
for you that they should fail in obeying the greatest rule laid down by
Our Saviour than that you should. I put a New