fect arises from his fertility of
illustration. The extraordinary information he possesses has induced the
habit of drawing too largely upon it; and he is apt to be led aside from
the straight road of his argument, to elucidate some minor disputed
point. But the argumentative style of which we speak is almost peculiar
to himself. There is a ripeness, a fruitfulness, in his mind, that places
him above the fetters of ordinary speakers. Such men, from the difficulty
of clearing their heads for the contest, too often present a mere
fleshless skeleton, as it were, very convincing to the judgment, but
powerless over the feelings; so that no lasting impression is produced.
But Lord Brougham, from being a master in argument, is free to pursue his
bent in illustration, and thus conjures up a whole picture that dwells on
the mind, and is remembered for its effect on the feelings or the
imagination, even by men whose levity or dullness precluded their being
fixed by the argument. The very structure of his sentences is more
adapted for this kind of speaking than any other. They sometimes appear
involved, to an ordinary mind, from their length, and the abundance of
illustration and explanation which they embrace; but the extraordinary
vigor with which the delivery is kept up, and the liveliness of fancy or
of humor that flashes at every turn of the thought, soon dispel the
temporary cloud.

In irony and in sarcasm, Lord Brougham is unrivaled among the public men
of the day. That his exuberant power of ridicule led him while Lord
Chancellor, into some excess of its use, cannot be denied, although a
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