, lest an undue advantage
should be taken of it by its object.

With this rugged outside, Mr. Forester had a warm and generous heart. At
first sight all men were deterred by his manner, and excited to give him
an ill character. But the longer any one knew him, the more they
approved him. His harshness was then only considered as habit; and
strong sense and active benevolence were uppermost in the recollection
of his familiar acquaintance. His conversation, when he condescended to
lay aside his snappish, rude, and abrupt half-sentences, became flowing
in diction, and uncommonly amusing with regard to its substance. He
combined, with weightiness of expression, a dryness of characteristic
humour, that demonstrated at once the vividness of his observation, and
the force of his understanding. The peculiarities of this gentleman's
character were not undisplayed in the scene to which he was now
introduced. Having much kindness in his disposition, he soon became
deeply interested in the unhappiness of his relation. He did every thing
in his power to remove it; but his attempts were rude and unskilful.
With a mind so accomplished and a spirit so susceptible as that of Mr.
Falkland, Mr. Forester did not venture to let loose his usual violence
of manner; but, if he carefully abstained from harshness, he was however
wholly incapable of that sweet and liquid eloquence of the soul, which
would perhaps have stood the fairest chance of seducing Mr. Falkland for
a moment to forget his anguish. He exhorted his host to rouse up his
spirit, and defy the foul fiend; but the tone of his exhortations found
no sympathetic chord in the mind of my patron. He had not the skill to
carry conviction to an understanding so well fortified in error. In a
word, after a thousand efforts of kindness to his entertainer, he drew
off his forces, growling and dissatisfied with his own impotence, rather
than angry at the obstinacy of Mr. Falkland. He felt no diminution of
his affection for him, and was sincerely grieved to find that he was so
little capable of serving him. Both parties in this case did justice to
the merits of the other; at the same time that the disparity of their
humours was such, as to prevent the stranger from being in any degree a
dangerous companion to the master of the house. They had scarcely one
point of contact in their characters. Mr. Forester was incapable of
giving Mr. Falkland that degree either of pain or pleasure, which can
rai