both. The naked and even uncomfortable aspect of this apartment had an
absolutely chilling effect upon me, as I passed through it on my way to
the great man himself; for, strange to say, the only road to the library
was through this melancholy chamber. Great men as well as small have
their "whims and oddities." The baron was reported to have taken pains
to make, what appeared to me, a very incommodious arrangement. A door
which had conducted to the library upon the other side of it had been
removed, and the aperture in which it had stood blocked up, whilst the
wall on this side had been cut away in order to effect an entrance. And
what was the reason assigned for so much unnecessary labour? The baron
had risen from nothing--had spent his early days in poverty and even
misery; and he wished to perpetuate the remembrance of his early
struggles, lest he should grow proud in prosperity, and forgetful of his
duties. The frequent sight of the few articles of furniture which had
been his whole stock twenty years before, was likely more than any thing
else to keep the past vividly before his eyes, and he placed them
therefore, to use his own words as attributed to him by my informant,
"between the flattery of the dazzling world without, and the silence of
his chamber of study and meditation." They no doubt answered their
object, in rendering the possessor at times low-spirited, since they
were certainly likely to have that effect even upon a stranger. On the
day of my introduction, however, I had little time for observation. My
name had been announced, and I passed rapidly on to the _sanctum
sanctorum_.

There is an aristocracy of MIND as well as an aristocracy of wealth and
social station; and, unless you be a soulless Radical, you cannot
approach a distinguished member of the order without a glow of loyal
homage, as honourable to its object as it is grateful to your own
self-respect. I entered the library of the far-famed professor with a
reverend step; he was seated at a large table, which was literally
covered with books, _brochures_, and letters opened and sealed. He was
dressed very plainly, wearing over a suit of mourning a dark coloured
dressing-gown, which hung loosely about him. He was, without exception,
the finest man I had ever seen, and I stopped involuntarily to look at
and admire him. As he sat, I judged him to be upwards of six feet in
height--(I afterwards learned that he stood six feet two,)--he was stout
a